Ukraine, Puźniki. On April 24, the exhumations of Polish victims of the Volyn slaughter will start

At the end of April, the exhumations of Polish victims of the Volyn slaughter in Puźniki in the Ternopil region in the west of Ukraine are to begin. Alina Charłamowa, who will supervise these works on behalf of the Ukrainian Volhynia antiquity foundation, reported that the trial would start on April 24. – Today we visited this place. The conditions are very difficult. It's hard to get there, there is no access to the former cemetery – she admitted.

– Exhumations of the remains of civilians, residents of the former village of Puźniki, will start on April 24, 2025. I think the whole process will last about three weeks – Alina Charłamowa clarified.

She said that, according to the memories of residents and documents in the graves in Puźniki, up to 79 people could be buried. – We do not know how many of them will be found in this pit, maybe we will not find everyone – she emphasized.

After exhumations, the remains found will be examined by anthropologists who determine the age of victims, their gender and bone damage. – DNA tests will be carried out, and then they will be compared with DNA tests of relatives of these dead people. DNA samples have already been taken from relatives by our Polish partners – she said.

“The conditions are very difficult”

Seven representatives of the Ukrainian Volhynia antiquity foundation will participate in the works in Puźniki, which received permission to search from the Ukrainian authorities on January 8. The Polish side will take part in the research, among others representatives of the Pomeranian branch IPN and the Freedom and Democracy Foundation.

– Today we visited this place. The conditions are very difficult. It's hard to get there, there is no way, there is no access to the former cemetery, we went there – described Charłamów.

She noted that the local authorities offer help from the search team. She also informed that on Wednesday, during a visit to the future searches, Polish diplomats from the Polish Consulate in Lutsk were present.

Crime in 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 Volyn 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 genocidal ethnic purge on about 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.