Ukraine, Poland Allow Each Other to Conduct Exhumations

Ukraine has allowed Poland to conduct exhumation of the remains of Polish soldiers buried in the city of Lviv in the west of the country.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine.

Ukraine has granted permission to Poland to conduct exhumation work on Polish soldiers who died in 1939 and are buried in the former village of Zboiska (now within the boundaries of Lviv).

It is also noted that Poland, in turn, has granted Ukraine permission to conduct search and exhumation work in the village of Yurechkova. 

Ukraine expects such work to begin soon.

The issue of exhumations has been a bone of contention in relations between Ukraine and Poland for years. The Polish government, led by Donald Tusk, has been pressuring Kyiv to lift the moratorium.

At the end of April, in the Ternopil region, on the territory of the now defunct village of Puzhnyky, the exhumation of the remains of Poles who died in 1945 began.

Recently, the Polish Sejm introduced a day of remembrance for those who died during ethnic cleansing in Volhynia as a day of remembrance for the victims of “genocide committed by the OUN and UPA in the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic.” The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry criticized this move.