President Volodymyr Zelensky says directly that every person who died deserves to be found and buried; I think such a signal is a clear statement that there will be no ban on the search and exhumation of the victims of the crime in Volhynia, Presidential Minister Marcin Przydacz told Polsat News.
Why didn’t Zelensky mention Volhynia in Warsaw?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wife Olena Zelenska paid an official visit to Poland on Wednesday. He met with President Andrzej Duda, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, participated in the Polish-Ukrainian Economic Forum and gave a speech in the evening in the courtyard of the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
Przydacz was asked why President Zelensky did not say a word about crime in Volhynia during his speech in Warsaw. The head of the Bureau of International Policy assured that the topic of difficult history was discussed by the presidents of Poland and Ukraine.
And if we listened to President Zełenski’s statement at the Royal Castle in Warsaw and President Duda’s statement, there are appropriate signals indicating this topic
said Przydacz.
Will there not be a ban on searching for excavations?
Moreover, as he noted, Zelensky directly says in his speech that “every person who died a long time ago today or somewhere in history deserves to be found and buried, and there can be no question of a ban here.”
We remember that until recently there was a ban on the search and exhumation of Polish victims of Volhynia, I think this kind of public signal from President Zelensky is a clear statement that there will be no ban in this regard
said Przydacz.
He was asked whether Poland had direct permission for Polish search teams to carry out their activities in Ukraine after the end of the war and for the families of the victims of Volhynia to bury their relatives. Przydacz said that “this is the unchanging goal of Polish diplomacy.”
This point has always appeared on the agenda of Polish-Ukrainian relations, yesterday’s statement of President Zelensky is in force, we will of course make these requests to carry out these searches and excavations in practice, because they are simply important for the families and descendants of these victims, but they are important to all of us
said the presidential minister.
80th anniversary of the Volyn massacre
He stressed that the 80th anniversary of the crime that occurred in Volhynia this year is an important one.
And, of course, we will certainly remember the victims of this crime, hoping that some reflection and historical and expert activities will be undertaken on the Ukrainian side to base our relations on historical truth
said Przydacz.
July 11 is the National Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists on the citizens of the Second Republic of Poland. The holiday is related to the anniversary of the events of July 11 and 12, 1943, when the UPA launched a coordinated attack against the Polish inhabitants of about 150 towns in Włodzimierz, Horochów, Kowel and Łuck counties. It took advantage of the fact that people gathered in churches on Sunday, July 11.
There were murders in temples, among other things. in Poryck (today Pawliwka) and Kisielin. About 50 Catholic churches in Volhynia were burned and demolished. Researchers calculate that on this one day alone, July 11, about 8,000 people could have died. Poles – mainly women, children and the elderly. The UPA operation was the culmination of the wave of murder and expulsion of Poles from their homes, which had been going on since early 1943, in which about 100,000 people died in Volhynia and eastern Galicia. Poland.
The perpetrators of the Volhynian crime were the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – the faction of Stepan Bandera, the Ukrainian insurgent army subordinated to it and the Ukrainian population who took part in the murders of Polish neighbors. The OUN-UPA called its actions “anti-Polish action”. This term hid the intention to murder and expel Poles. Roman Shukhevych, the main commander of the UPA, is directly responsible for carrying out the genocidal ethnic cleansing of the Polish civilian population in Volhynia and Eastern Lesser Poland.
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olk/PAP
Source: wPolityce