“Ukraine will not prevent the Poles from finding and exhuming the victims of the Volyn tragedy. In turn, Poland will support Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU. This was stated by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslav Sikorskyi at a press conference following the meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiga, writes UNIAN. “Ukraine confirms the absence of obstacles to search and exhumation works on its territory and declares that”, — write on: ua.news
Ukraine will not prevent the Poles from finding and exhuming the victims of the Volyn tragedy. In turn, Poland will support Ukraine’s aspirations to join the EU.
This was stated by the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs Radoslav Sikorskyi at a press conference following the meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiga, writes UNIAN.
“Ukraine confirms the absence of obstacles to conducting search and exhumation works on its territory and declares its readiness to positively consider applications in these matters. Of course, we are also mobilizing Polish institutions, such as the Institute of National Remembrance, to be sensitive to Ukrainian demands,” Polsat News quoted Sikorsky as saying.
In his turn, Andriy Sybiga added that the joint Ukrainian-Polish working group should work “on practical mechanisms for carrying out search and exhumation works.”
The press service of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine also published a joint statement of the two ministers, in which it is said that Kyiv and Warsaw “are determined to resolve the controversial issues of our common past in the name of universal values and in the Christian spirit.” In particular, in the matter of exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy.
In addition, the head of Polish diplomacy assured that Warsaw will support Kyiv’s efforts on the way to the EU
“We will use the period of the Polish presidency in the EU Council to speed up this process as much as possible. Ukraine’s membership in the EU is a strategic interest of our country,” Sikorsky noted.
The dispute between Kyiv and Warsaw regarding the search and exhumation of the Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy has been going on since 2017, when Ukraine imposed a moratorium on the relevant work. This was preceded by the demolition of the monument to the UPA soldiers in the Polish village of Hrushovichi.
Since then, Kyiv has repeatedly called on Warsaw to restore this and other Ukrainian monuments in Poland, destroyed by Polish nationalists in recent years. Ukraine stressed that the resumption of work on the search for the remains of the dead compatriots depends on the decisions of Warsaw, in particular on the amendment of the Polish law on the Institute of National Remembrance, which provides for the prohibition of the “ideology of Ukrainian nationalists.”
After all, Polish officials have recently begun threatening Ukraine with blocking its aspirations to join the European Union over this dispute.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, said that Ukraine had promised progress in exhuming the victims of the Volyn tragedy by November, but this did not happen.
Previously, the President of Poland Andrzej Duda stated that there should be a “breakthrough” in problematic historical issues between Poland and Ukraine, but not as a result of “blackmail”, as it would not bring “anything good”.
We will remind you that the Minister of Defense of Poland, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysh, believes that official Warsaw should not approve Ukraine’s membership in the European Union in the future until the issue of the Volyn tragedy of 1943 is resolved.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said that attempts to block Ukraine’s accession to the European Union play into the hands of Putin’s policy. He stated this while commenting on the statement of the Minister of Defense of Poland, Wladyslaw Kosyniak-Kamis, that Ukraine cannot join the EU without solving the Volyn issue.
During his visit to Warsaw, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiga said that Ukraine is ready to discuss complex issues of common history with Polish colleagues, including the Volyn tragedy of 1943-1944.
Official Polish institutions did not apply to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINP) with a request to exhume the bodies of Poles who died during the Volyn tragedy. The decision on the exhumation was made at the request of some Polish citizens, said the head of the Ukrainian National Police, Anton Drobovich.
And the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance appealed to the Cabinet of Ministers with a request to allocate at least one million hryvnias for the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy.
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