The Ukrainian Council of Christian Churches called for the search and exhumation of Polish graves. The statement comes as Poland and Ukraine face difficulties over the painful history of both nations connected to the genocide of Polish people in Volhynia and East Galicia perpetrated by the Ukrainian nationalists. 

“We, the members of the Council of Christian Churches of Ukraine, are closely following the newly unfolding issue of the need for mutual and proper Christian commemoration of the victims of the Ukrainian-Polish armed conflict during World War II. We welcome the recent statement by the leadership of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance on the initiative to organise search and exhumation work for Polish graves in the Rivne region,” the Council writes in its statement.

Unfortunately, it is important to add that the wording of the statements resembles Ukraine’s propaganda regarding the genocide of the Poles, or the Volhynian Massacre and describing it as “Ukrainian-Polish armed conflict during World War II”. 

Ukraine did not possess a form of a sovereign state during the 2 World War, therefore the only regular militia forces were either Nazi-collaborating formations such as SS Galitzien, parts of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (UPA) or the Nachtigall Battalion (responsible for, among others, the Lviv pogroms of 1941). 

The actions of both types of Ukrainian formations towards the Polish population were not taken against partisan groups or the Polish army. The point of the genocide was the ethnic cleansing of Polish civilians from the areas of Volhynia and East Galicia. 

However, the statement shows some positive shifts by putting pressure on solving the important issue of a blockade issued in 2017 that stopped the exhumation of the Polish mass graves in Ukraine. 

“We ask that no political competition be allowed in this area. Ultimatums, stubbornness, and recklessness will only serve the evil aimed at both our nations. Let us act to protect each other,” the Council adds. 

Interestingly the Statements ends with a clear reference to the famous Letter of Reconciliation of the Polish Bishops to the German Bishops from 1965: 

“Let us do everything possible and within the power of each of us to ensure that the victims of this bloody, inhuman, anti-Christian confrontation of 80 years ago can convincingly say to us Never again. And we, now living, will perceive this command in our conscience as a fundamental call to action, having previously cleansed our conscience with a genuine Christian act of forgiveness, asking: Forgive us and we forgive you. Amen!.”

Here you can read the full Statement of the Council of Christian Churches of Ukraine on Supporting the Position of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance in the Search and Exhumation of Polish Graves.

The Volhynia Massacre was a genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists and the local population between 1943 and 1945 against Poles in the areas of Volhynia and Eastern Galicia. Some 100,000 Poles lost their lives in bloody pogroms in more than 100 villages across the Eastern borderlands of Poland, occupied by Germans during the 2 World War. 

Source: Institute for Religious Freedom

Tomasz Modrzejewski

Photo: X @AleksanderDroz4