Minister of Culture Hanna Wróblewska said on Saturday that the Polish-Ukrainian group is working on the exhumation of Polish victims of the UPA. She added that “stakeholders and people and organizations that are part of this process” will be informed about the details first, and only then the public. On the same day, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Culture Andriy Nadjos announced that Ukraine and Poland had exchanged lists of places where remains could be searched and exhumed on both sides of the border.
On Friday Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on the X platform that a decision had been made about the first exhumations of Polish victims of the UPA. The head of government thanked the ministers of culture of Poland and Ukraine for good cooperation.
On Saturday, during a press conference in Stronie Śląskie, the Minister of Culture, Hanna Wróblewska, was asked about the matter of exhumation of Polish victims of the UPA. – At the moment, a Polish-Ukrainian group has been established and is working on a broad solution to this problem. Due to the importance of this topic and its extreme sensitivity, stakeholders and people and organizations that are part of this process will first learn about the details of this work, and then the public opinion – replied the head of the Ministry of Culture.
Wróblewska expressed her gratitude to the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communication of Ukraine, Mykola Toczycki, “for the first consent” to exhume the Polish victims of the UPA.
Hanna Wróblewska: the work of the Polish-Ukrainian group regarding the exhumation of Polish victims of the UPA is ongoingTVN24
“A very important first step”
Deputy Minister of Culture Andriy Najos, who on the Ukrainian side heads the Polish-Ukrainian working group on historical issues, assured of positive intentions to resolve disputes related to this topic. – We are positive about achieving good solutions that will satisfy Polish society and Ukrainian society – he said.
Deputy Minister Najos declared that Ukraine sees Poland as a very important strategic partner. – We are aware of what Polish society lives, just as Polish society understands the needs of Ukrainian society. We understand (…) that issues of historical memory are important for Polish society and we do not want to politicize it. (…) Therefore, pursuant to the agreement between the leaders of both countries (…), bilateral groups started work, he said.
Monument to the “Volhynia Massacre” in Domostawa in Podkarpacie Darek Delmanowicz/PAP
– We have taken a very important first step: we have exchanged requests from the Polish side to carry out work on the territory of Ukraine, and the Polish side has received requests from us to carry out our work on the territory of Poland. We are currently analyzing these applications and collecting documents in order to make positive decisions and publicly comment on the results of such work with the consent of both parties, stressed Nadzos.
Lifting the moratorium on searches and exhumations
In November 2024, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Ukraine, Radosław Sikorski and Andriy Sybiha announced the decision to lift the moratorium on the search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims of the Volhynia crime, in force since 2017.
Ukraine then confirmed that “there are no obstacles to Polish state institutions and private entities, in cooperation with the relevant Ukrainian institutions, carrying out search and exhumation work on the territory of Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation” and declared “readiness to positively consider applications in these matters.” .
Boss Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs he declared that the Polish side would mobilize its own institutions, such as Institute of National Remembrance“to be sensitive to Ukrainian demands.”
Volhynia conflict of memory
Poland and Ukraine have been divided for many years by the memory of the role of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, which in 1943-45 committed genocidal ethnic cleansing of approximately 100,000 people. Polish men, women and children. While for the Polish side it was a condemnable crime of genocide (mass and organized), for the Ukrainians it was the result of a symmetrical armed conflict for which – as they claim – both sides were equally responsible. Additionally, Ukrainians want to perceive the OUN and UPA only as anti-Soviet organizations (due to their post-war resistance to the USSR), and not anti-Polish organizations.
In the years 2017-24, the Institute of National Remembrance submitted nine official general applications to the Ukrainian administration, which included agreeing on the possibility of conducting search and exhumation work in a total of 65 locations (the locations were repeated due to the need to repeat applications). Some of them were considered positively and work was carried out. In other places, work was refused and some requests went unanswered.
Main photo source: Darek Delmanowicz/PAP