Ukraine has confirmed no obstacles to resuming the search and exhumation work of the remains of Polish victims of the Volhynia Massacre, which had been in place since 2017. The decision was announced at a joint press conference of Polish and Ukrainian foreign ministers Radosław Sikorski and Andriy Sybiha.

The President of the Institute of National Remembrance Karol Nawrocki recalled that the IPN “has been consistently striving since 2017 to make all exhumation requests and exhumations in Volhynia the real”.

 “In 2017. IPN sent the first request for search and exhumation work. This request concerned several localities (…). Between 2017 and 2024, we sent nine such requests. None of these requests met with the approval of the Ukrainian side,”  Nawrocki said.

According to Nawrocki, a public declaration must have a second stage which he called the “check mode” and give the Ukrainian side the time to accept all requests that have been pending since 2017. 

The IPN head assured the Institute’s Search and Identification Bureau “is ready within 24 hours to undertake a real search in Volhynia”.

Rafał Trzaskowski, the President of Warsaw welcomed the information as proof of the effectiveness of the Polish diplomacy and said that the exhumed Poles could be buried at Warsaw’s Powązki Cemetery. 

Source: PAP

Photo: Społeczny Komitet Budowy Pomnika „Rzeź Wołyńska” w Domostawie

Tomasz Modrzejewski