The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) has not received any official requests from the Polish side to allow the exhumation of the bodies of the victims of the Volyn tragedy. This was reported by the head of the institute, Anton Drobovych, in an interview with Radio Liberty. According to him, Ukraine is ready to consider the possibility of conducting search and exhumation works, but no specific requests have yet been received from Poland.
"Two weeks ago, I sent a letter to the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Polish Institute of National Remembrance with a request to where exactly search or exhumation work is needed. However, there has been no official response yet," Drobovych noted.
The head of the UINP added that although the institute received a request from a Polish citizen, this appeal will be included in the work plan for 2025, even in the absence of official appeals at the state level. Drobovych also mentioned that Poland has not fulfilled previous agreements on the creation of a joint working group to coordinate search and exhumation works.
In addition, the head of the institute stressed the importance of respecting the 1994 agreement between Ukraine and Poland and mentioned cases of vandalism at Ukrainian graves in Poland. He particularly emphasized that the mass grave of Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) soldiers on Monastyr Mountain still remains destroyed.
"This is an absurd situation, even Polish politicians do not understand why the legal grave has not been restored yet," Drobovych noted.
The Ukrainian authorities have already given permission to begin search work on the graves of Poles who died during the UPA attack in February 1945 in the town of Puznyky in Podolia. However, further steps in this direction require an official appeal from Poland.
Earlier, Polish Minister of National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said that resolving the issue of the Volyn tragedy of 1943 is a condition for Ukraine's accession to the European Union. However, Polish President Andrzej Duda criticized this statement, emphasizing the importance of developing Polish-Ukrainian relations.
