Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Andrij Najos declared that the Ukrainian side is ready to consider applications that will influence Poland on the exhumation in Volyn. It is crucial that a akin process besides takes place on the Polish side – he added.
On 24 April the exhumation of Polish victims in Puźniki in Tarnopolski region in the west of Ukraine will begin.
Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Andrij Najos during a Wednesday gathering with a group of Polish journalists in Kiev was asked if there would be further consent for exhumations.
We are ready to consider further proposals that will influence the Polish side. It is very crucial that a akin process besides takes place on the Polish side. If these processes are mutual, it will build an atmosphere of common trust between our countries and societies.
“Najos said.
He pointed out that the Polish and Ukrainian sides are in the process of establishing circumstantial places.
Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine pointed out that the subject of Volyn is utilized propagandaally in Russian misinformation. At the same time, he admitted that he was aware of the importance of planet War II for Polish society.
When asked if he could imagine that in the future Ukraine would call the events in Volyn “crime”, “genocide”, he replied that specified wording must be based on “a very good evidence base”. He stressed that Russian misinformation frequently uses specified terms as genocide, mass murders, mass executions in this context.
Just so that this is not utilized by them, we have “blocked” this process and are striving to make specified a basis that, for example, professional historians, experts in court, anthropologists find the actual scale of these events and that in the future we may usage or not usage these formulas.
“Andry Najos said.
He pointed out that the licence to exhume in Puźniki was issued despite the ongoing war, so that "Polish experts would arrive and begin direct work in Ukraine; to analyse this reality which was connected with planet War II".
The fact that a week after Easter the Polish squad will come and start work in Ukraine is an crucial step towards taking Russian propaganda distant from the ground of manipulation in this area
“said the Deputy Minister.
He recalled that among the victims of planet War II there are besides Ukrainian citizens who are buried in Poland.
We must decently honor the memory of these victims on both sides.
“He added.
Crime of UPA in Puźniki
On the night of 12 to 13 February 1945, Ukrainian nationalists murdered 50 to 120 Poles, according to various sources.
The decision to abolish the moratorium on the search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims of the Volyn crime was announced in late November 2024 during a joint press conference of abroad ministers of Poland and Ukraine, Radosław Sikorski and Andrija Sybiha.
The Ukrainian side then confirmed that "there are no obstacles to the conduct by Polish state institutions and private entities in cooperation with the competent Ukrainian institutions of search and exhumation work in the territory of Ukraine, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation". She besides declared "ready to deal positively with requests in these cases".
Poland and Ukraine have for many years different memories about the function of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and Ukrainian Insurgency Army, which committed genocide cultural cleansing on nearly 100,000 Polish men, women and children in 1943-45.
While this was a condemnable crime of genocide (mass and organized) for the Polish side, it was a consequence of a symmetrical armed conflict for which both parties were equally responsible. Additionally, Ukrainians perceive the CNS and UPA exclusively as anti-Soviet organizations (because of their post-war opposition to the USSR) alternatively than anti-Polish.
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