He added that new demands from the Polish side for such actions raise concerns, among other things: These are the village of Ugri in the current Rivne region and the village of Pniki in the Ternopil region. “In both cases, search operations will be required, which could take place in 2025 if human remains are found there and a decision is taken to exhume them,” Drobowitz said.
He recalled that search operations are seasonal and excavations carried out in winter can damage archaeological sites.
– Speaking of old requests from the Polish side, there is a 2019 letter from the former director of the Institute of National Memory (Jarosław Zarek), which contains a list of 4-5 sites that need to be excavated. . In these locations too, with goodwill, construction could in principle start next year and be completed in 2025-2026, Drobowich said.
Excavations in Ukraine. Dozens of applications have been submitted
According to him, the IPNU is currently working on the basis of 2019 data from the Polish side, because since September the Polish Institute of National Memory has provided a list of locations where the remains of the victims were searched. This is because they have not responded to his request to do so. : Volhynia Crime.
He denied these claims in a statement from the National Remembrance Association, saying Drobovich's words were manipulative, misleading public opinion and “undermining Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in the field of commemoration of the victims of the Volhynian crime.” He emphasized.
As part of the previous correspondence with the Ukrainian side, including the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, the Institute of National Memory of Poland has submitted nine main applications and dozens of detailed applications for consent to carry out search and excavation work. It reminded me of what happened. Victim of Volhynia crime. Each application indicated the exact location where the work would be carried out, selected by experts from the Polish Institute of National Memory.
Karol Navrocki on excavations in Ukraine: we are ready
“During a press conference held yesterday (edited version on Wednesday) at the institute’s headquarters, Dr. Karol Naworocki said that experts from the National Institute of Memory were ready to go to Ukraine within 24 hours to carry out search and excavation work. “We have confirmed that this is the case,” the institute said. National Remembrance writes:
The institute stressed that it interprets Anton Drobovich's words as an attempt to block the process of searching for victims of the Volhynian crime agreed between Polish and Ukrainian authorities. – The Polish side acts in accordance with the laws in force in Ukraine and always fulfills all formal conditions, which was clearly emphasized yesterday by Dr. Karol Navrocki, Director of the Institute of National Memory, – we said in a statement I read it.
The Interfax Ukrainian news agency wrote on Thursday that the IPNU chief “complained that it had become difficult to distinguish between the statements of IPN officials and those of the presidential candidate,” and that Law and Justice had confirmed that Mr. Navrocki's candidate for head of state I remember supporting his candidacy for. .
Searches and excavations are prohibited. Behind the scenes is the Polish monument issue.
Drobowitz also reported on Thursday that the Polish side had carried out three search operations between 2019 and 2023.
Ukraine confirmed on Tuesday that there are no obstacles to carrying out search and excavation operations on its territory. The decision to lift the moratorium on the search and exhumation of the bodies of Polish victims of the Volhyny massacre, which has been in place since 2017, was announced at a joint press conference by Polish and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Radosław Sikorski and Andriy Sibiha. . .
Since spring 2017, a conflict has been going on between Warsaw and Kiev over the ban on the search and exhumation of bodies of Polish victims of wars and conflicts on Ukrainian territory, introduced by the Institute of National Memory of Ukraine. . The ban was issued after the UPA monument in Hrushovice was demolished in April 2017.
Relations between Poland and Ukraine. Opinions are divided on the topic of excavation.
Poland and Ukraine have long been divided by memories of the role of Ukrainian nationalist organizations and rebel forces in the ethnic cleansing of some 100,000 people between 1943 and 1945. Polish men, women and children.
For the Polish side, this was a reprehensible crime of (massive and systematic) genocide, but for the Ukrainian side, it was the result of a symmetrical armed conflict in which both sides were equally responsible. Moreover, Ukrainians want to recognize the OUN and the UPA only as anti-Soviet organizations (due to post-war resistance to the USSR) and not as anti-Polish organizations.
From 2017 to 2024, the Institute of National Memory submitted nine official general applications to the Ukrainian government, including consent to the possibility of carrying out search and excavation operations in a total of 65 locations. Repeat applications were included (these locations were made iteratively due to necessity).
Some of them have been positively considered and work has been carried out. Work was refused elsewhere and some requests went unanswered.
“Better Poland”. Expert in public consultation on health education/Polsat News/Polsat News
