Ukraine recognizes 1944–1951 forced expulsions from Poland as deportation

According to the document, Ukraine "defines the restoration of rights for Ukrainian citizens among the deported population as one of the priority areas of the country's political, socio-economic, cultural, and spiritual development."

Specifically, individuals of Ukrainian origin who were forcibly relocated from the Polish People's Republic based on decisions by former Soviet and Polish authorities between 1944 and 1951 have now been added to the official list of those recognized as deportees.

"The state guarantees individuals of Ukrainian ethnic origin who were forcibly relocated from their places of compact residence in the territory of the Republic of Poland between 1944 and 1951 — and, in the event of their death, their family members — the right to compensation for material and moral damage caused by the deportation. The amount and procedure will be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the form of a one-time financial payment," the draft law states.

Forced expulsion of Ukrainians from Poland (1944–1951)

In 1944, the governments of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR) and the Polish Republic signed the agreement on the mutual exchange of populations in border areas. This marked the beginning of the expulsion of Ukrainians from their ancestral lands that had become part of the Polish Republic.

Operation Vistula was carried out later, between April and July 1947, under decisions made by the political and state leadership of the USSR, Poland, and Czechoslovakia.

In practice, it was a deportation of Ukrainians from their ethnic territories to western and northern regions of Poland. The goal was to assimilate the Ukrainian population while limiting support for the Ukrainian underground movement.

As a result, 482,000 people were forcibly relocated, and 3,936 individuals were imprisoned in the Jaworzno concentration camp.