Poland and Ukraine said Wednesday that they had found common ground to resolve a memorial dispute that has poisoned their relations for generations surrounding the Volhynia massacres, thousands of Polish civilians killed by Ukrainian nationalist militiamen in the west of Ukraine during the Second World War.
During a visit by President Volodimir Zelensky to Warsaw, Ukraine agreed to carry out the first exhumations of victims, a “turning point” welcomed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
According to the daily Rzeczpospolita, the first exhumation work will begin in April.
“We are finding a common language on the issue of the Volhynian crime,” Donald Tusk said at a press conference with Volodimir Zelensky. “We will work towards a systemic solution to this problem.”
The two allies, added the Ukrainian president, must “progress in their relations”.
Poland has been demanding for years free access to the sites where the victims of the massacres are believed to be buried, so that they can be exhumed.
According to Warsaw, more than 100,000 Poles died in these massacres. Thousands of Ukrainians were also killed in reprisal operations.
Volhynia, home to Poles and Ukrainians, was part of Poland during World War II. It was later occupied by the Soviet Union.
In 2013, the Polish Parliament described massacres committed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), a nationalist militia, as “ethnic cleansing with the characteristics of genocide.”
Ukraine has rejected this characterization and often presents the events in Volhynia as a Polish-Ukrainian conflict that affected both nations. Kyiv accuses Poland in particular of having organized the forced displacement of Ukrainians on its territory after the war.
(Pawel Florkiewicz, Barbara Erling, Jan Strupczewski, Yuliia Dysa and Olena Harmash; Jean-Stéphane Brosse for the French version)
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