“Ukraine and Poland exchanged lists of places for searching and exhuming the remains of victims of historical conflicts. Source: Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine for European Integration Andriy Najos in a comment to the PAP agency, writes “Evropeyska Pravda” Details: Najos, who heads the Polish-Ukrainian working group on historical issues from the Ukrainian side, assured the agency on Saturday of his positive intentions to resolve disputes, related to the topic of exhumations.”, — write: www.pravda.com.ua
Ukraine and Poland exchanged lists of places for searching and exhuming the remains of victims of historical conflicts.
Source: Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine for European Integration Andriy Najos in a comment to the PAP agency, writes “Evropeyska Pravda”
Details: Najos, who on the Ukrainian side heads the Polish-Ukrainian working group on historical issues, assured the agency on Saturday of his positive intentions to resolve disputes related to the topic of exhumations.
Direct speech of Najos: “We took a very important first step: we exchanged requests from the Polish side to carry out work on Ukrainian territory, and the Polish side received requests from us to carry out our work on Polish territory. Now we are analyzing these requests and collecting documents so that, with the consent of both parties to make positive decisions and publicly comment on the results of such work”.
Details: Another Ukrainian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the agency that Ukraine had given permission to search for remains at the site where Polish burials were discovered in 2023.
“In Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation, permission has been granted for the exhumation of the remains found during search operations in 2023,” the interlocutor told the agency.
The official did not name the place where the remains of the Poles were found. However, in 2023, the then Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, visited Puzhniki in the Ternopil region, where Polish and Ukrainian experts found a burial ground where the bodies of the murdered villagers were placed in 1945.
According to the interlocutor of the agency, “the issue of restoring the names of Ukrainians (members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army) on the tombstone on Mount Monastir (on Polish territory) remains open.”
The government official’s statement states that search and exhumation permits in Ukraine will be issued separately for each burial site.
“There is Ukrainian legislation, according to which permits are issued and will be issued for carrying out work on specific objects after consideration of properly executed, necessary documents by companies that have the right to carry out the relevant work,” he said.
What preceded: On January 10, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that a decision had been made on the first exhumations of the Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy in Ukraine, but he did not give details.
Commenting on Tusk’s statement, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Andriy Sybiga, expressed hope for “further implementation of agreements based on mutual respect and reciprocity.”
The head of the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland and presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki said that he did not know what decisions Donald Tusk had announced.