Ukraine. Authorities: We are ready to consider subsequent conclusions on exhumation in Volhynia

The Ukrainian side is ready to consider conclusions that will influence Poland on exhumation in Volhynia – declared Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Andriy Nadżos. The deputy head of the ministry adds that it is important that a similar process also takes place on the Polish side.

On April 24, exhumations of Polish victims in Puźniki in the Ternopil region in the West will begin Ukraine.

– We are ready to consider subsequent conclusions that will be influenced by the Polish side. It is very important that a similar process also takes place on the Polish side. If these processes are mutual, it will build an atmosphere of joint trust between our countries and societies – said Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Andriy Nadżos during a Wednesday meeting with a group of Polish journalists in Kiev.

He noted that the Polish and Ukrainian side are in the process of determining specific places. The deputy minister of Ukrainian culture pointed out that the subject of Volhynia is used propaganda in Russian disinformation. At the same time, he admitted that he was aware of the importance of the history of World War II for Polish society.

Asked if he imagined that in the future Ukraine would name the event in Volhynia “crime”, “genocide”, he replied that such wording must be based on a “very good evidence”. He emphasized that in Russian disinformation such terms such as genocide, mass murders, and mass executions are often used in this context.

Read also: “The conditions are very difficult”, but the exhumations are to start

Nadżos: The decision takes away the propaganda of Russian manipulation

– It is so that it would not be used by them, we “have met” this process and we strive to create such a basis that, for example, professional historians, experts, anthropologists establish the actual scale of these events and that we could use or not use these formulations in the future (…) on the basis of research (…) – said Andrij Nadżos.

He pointed out that the exhumation permission in Puźniki was issued despite the ongoing war, so that “Polish experts would come and began direct work in Ukraine and to examine this reality that was associated with World War II.”

– The fact that the Polish team will come and start work in Ukraine a week after Easter is an important step towards taking the Russian propaganda the ground of manipulation in this area – noted the deputy minister.

He reminded that among the victims of World War II there are also Ukrainian citizens who are buried in Poland. “We must properly, one side, honor the memory of these victims,” ​​he added.

Ukraine agrees to exhumations in the village of Puźniki

On the night of February 12-13, 1945, in the village of Puźniki, Ukrainian nationalists murdered, according to various sources, from 50 to 120 Poles.

The decision to abolish the moratorium in force since 2017 for the search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims of the Volhynia crime was announced at the end of November 2024 during a joint press conference of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Ukraine, Radosław Sikorski and Andrija Sybiha.

The Ukrainian side confirmed at the time that “there are no obstacles to conducting Polish state institutions and private entities in cooperation with relevant Ukrainian institutions of exploration and exhumation works in Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.” She also declared “readiness for positive consideration of applications in these matters.”

Poland and Ukraine for many years differ in memory of the role of the organization of Ukrainian nationalists and the Ukrainian insurgent army, which in 1943-45 committed a genocidal ethnic purge at nearly 100,000. 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 both sides were equally responsible.

In addition, Ukrainians perceive OUN and UPA only as anti -Soviet organizations (due to their post -war resistance movement against the USSR), not anti -Polish.