The Polish Institute of National Remembrance is ready to begin exhumation work in Volyn within 24 hours, said Karol Nawrocki, head of the Institute, who is also a presidential candidate from the opposition Law and Justice party. His words were quoted by the Polish publication RMF24 .
Navrotsky recalled that the INP "has been consistently fighting since 2017 to ensure that all the results of exhumations and excavations in Volyn are true.".
"In 2017, the INP sent the first request for search and exhumation work. This request concerned a number of settlements. In the period from 2017 to 2024, we sent nine such requests. None of these requests was accepted by the Ukrainian side," he said.
According to Navrotsky, if public declarations by politicians are not just political declarations, then the Institute of National Remembrance - the only institution ready to undertake exhumation work in Volyn - is waiting for official confirmation and a response to inquiries.
Navrotsky assured that the INP has both people and equipment at its disposal, so if there is an official decision on this issue, and not just a declaration, trained teams will go to Volyn.
"The Bureau of Search and Identification of the INP is ready to conduct a real search in Volyn within 24 hours. Therefore, we are waiting for official confirmation of this information," he said.
The INM president also claims that the search can begin despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. The war has no impact on the effectiveness of the work of the Institute of National Remembrance employees, he added.
As a reminder, yesterday, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Ukraine, Radosław Sikorski and Andriy Szybiga, adopted a joint statement on the issue of exhumations, which has become a stumbling block in relations between the two states.
Former head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, People's Deputy Volodymyr Viatrovych criticized this statement.
"It is wonderful that the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Poland are "determined to resolve the controversial issues of our common past in the name of universal human values and in the Christian spirit." But the specific vision of this solution has somehow been reduced to unilateral obligations by Ukraine... There is not a single word about honoring the fallen Ukrainians and their burial places in Poland," he wrote on Facebook.
