Poland marks July 11 to honor Volhynia victims: Ukrainian Foreign Ministry speaks of bias
Illustrative photo: Poland established a Day of Remembrance for victims of Volhynia tragedy (Getty Images)
Poland's decision to designate July 11 as the National Day of Remembrance of Poles – Victims of Genocide Committed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) on the Eastern lands of the Second Polish Republic contradicts the good neighborly relations between Kyiv and Warsaw, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of Ukraine.
Decision of the Sejm
Polish Sejm stated that “in 1939–1946, Ukrainian nationalists... killed more than one hundred thousand Poles, mostly village residents, destroyed their property, and forced hundreds of thousands of Poles to leave the Eastern Borderlands of the Second Polish Republic.”
According to the statement, “the peak of this crime was July 1943,” and “the symbolic date of the hecatomb” is July 11.
MFA reaction
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in turn, considers the decision of the Polish Sejm to be one that contradicts the spirit of good neighborly relations between Ukraine and Poland.
“Such unilateral steps do not contribute to achieving mutual understanding and reconciliation, on which our countries have been working for a long time, in particular in the format of the Joint Ukrainian-Polish Group on Historical Dialogue, which operates with the participation of ministries of culture and institutes of national memory of the two countries,” the ministry added.
Kyiv, as stated by the MFA, advocates for a scientific and unbiased examination of the complex aspects of shared history and believes that the path to reconciliation lies through dialogue and mutual respect. In this regard, it calls on Warsaw to refrain from steps that may lead to increased tension in bilateral relations.
“Despite the bias and political context of the decision of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, we continue along the path of conducting search and exhumation work on the territory of Ukraine and Poland, respectively. We already have practical results on this path, which should be further developed in the future,” the MFA noted.
Exhumation of victims of the Volhynia tragedy
This year in Ukraine, the exhumation of Polish citizens who died during the Volhynia tragedy in 1945 began. Warsaw had previously repeatedly called for the start of this process, and recently, both countries managed to reach an agreement on several issues.
At the beginning of April, exhumation work began in the village of Uhly, Rivne region. In particular, search efforts also took place in the territory of the Ternopil region.
More on why Ukraine and Poland still argue about the Volhynia tragedy – in the interview with RBC-Ukraine.
