The symbolic grave of the Victims of the Volynian Rzezi unveiled at the historical cemetery in Lublin

The celebrations began with the Holy Mass in the Garrison Church. They then went to the municipal cemetery at Biała Street, where in the symbolic grave they laid an urn with the ground from the villages of Ostrówek and Wola Ostrowiecka. The towns were destroyed by Ukrainian nationalists in the summertime of 1943.

The deputy president of the IPN during the ceremony at the municipal cemetery said that in communist Poland the memory of the Volyn crime was removed from the authoritative historiography and revealing the monument not only honors the murdered, but besides restores the memory of the Polishness of the Kresów and the crime of 1943.

Polejowski recalled that the Volyn crime was planned and carried out by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – Ukrainian Insurgency Army and was part of the biological, cultural and economical depolonization of the east Borders.

- I'm sorry. This extermination policy towards Poles was in general part part of the policy of depolonization of this area, which has lasted since autumn 1939. And yet Poland survived there, there are traces of it," said Polejowski.

In his opinion, the Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation must be based on the truth, not on the current political benefits. "So the Ukrainian side, if this reconciliation is to be expected, must accept this truth. He must express remorse and regret for what happened there, due to the fact that modern Ukraine straight refers to UPA as those who fought for independent Ukraine," he stated.

He declared that the IPN would conduct further search for the remains of Poles in Ostrówków and Wola Ostrowiecka until he found the remains of all victims.

According to the IPN, the extermination of the village of Ostrówków and Wola Ostrowiecka was 1 of the most tragic episodes of the Volyn crime. At dawn on 30 August 1943, UPA troops supported by Ukrainian residents of the surrounding towns surrounded both villages. Poles were gathered under the pretext of meeting, and then executions began. In a fewer hours, about 1050 people were murdered, including hundreds of women and children. After the crime of the village they were looted and burned, and the bodies of the victims were thrown into mass pits, wells, and ditches.

The territories on which both villages were located present lie in Ukraine. Exhumations of the victims were carried out there in 1992, 2011, 2015 and summertime of that year. On 30 August, 55 Poles, victims of crimes, were buried in the old Polish cemetery in Ostrówków.

For years, Poland and Ukraine have been different in their assessment of the activities of the Organizations of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgency Army. These formations in 1943–1945 carried out a genocidal cultural cleansing in which nearly 100,000 Polish men, women and children were murdered.

Since spring 2017, Ukraine has been banned from searching for and exhuming the remains of Polish victims of wars and conflicts. Ukrainian IPN introduced it after dismantling the UPA monument in Hruszowice, Podkarpackie Voivodeship. The decision to abolish the moratorium was announced in late November 2024 at a joint conference of abroad ministers of Poland and Ukraine, Radosław Sikorski and Andrija Sybiha.

On 8 August, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINP) reported that consents were issued for the exhumation of the remains of Polish victims in Huta Pieniacka in the Lviv Oblast and for search and exhumation in Ugła in Volyn. In Pieniacka Hut, human remains were located in 25 locations in an area of over 200 sq m.

In the spring of last year the Polish side carried out exhumations in the erstwhile village of Puźniki in the Tarnopolski region. At least 42 people were found there. The next phase of the search began on 31 August. The aim is to find the collective grave of Poles murdered in 1945 by the UPA branch.

I'm sorry.

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The ceremony was attended by representatives of the Solidarnych2010 Terenowy Branch in Lublin with Wojciech Radkowiak [on the left-hand photo] engaged in the renovation of Polish cemeteries in Volyn - among others in Ostrówków - as well as the construction of a monument and a grave in Lublin.

The long-standing conflict of the social group to commemorate the Victims was culminated present at this lofty ceremony.

Flagship 27 Volyn Infantry Division AK