Poland and Ukraine Adopt Joint Historical Statement on Exhumations of Volhynia Victims

Polish and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Radoslaw Sikorski and Andriy Sybiha issued a joint statement in Warsaw the day before, in which Ukraine confirmed that there are no obstacles to the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, PAP reports.

In the near future, Poland and Ukraine will launch a joint working group under the auspices of the ministries of culture of both countries to carry out substantive work and reach an agreement between the parties. This issue has been a stumbling block in relations between the two countries for a long time. 

‘Ukraine confirms that there are no obstacles for Polish state institutions and individuals to carry out search and exhumation work on the territory of Ukraine in cooperation with competent Ukrainian institutions, in accordance with Ukrainian law, and declares its readiness to positively consider requests in these cases,’ the statement said.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the agreement ‘a guarantee of full reconciliation of our peoples, so necessary at this dramatic moment in our common history.’

‘Ukraine will not block the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy. Our ministers are starting to work on specifics. I hope that this time there will be no more obstacles,’ Tusk wrote on the social network X.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha noted that the two countries would work on practical mechanisms for resolving cases related to searches and exhumations.

At the end of 2017, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance initiated a moratorium on the exhumation of the bodies of Poles and representatives of other nationalities who died as a result of the Volyn tragedy in connection with acts of vandalism against monuments to Ukrainian insurgents.