Poland buries wartime remains in western Ukraine

7/9/2025 5:54

Remains of Poles

killed by Ukrainian nationalist insurgents during World War Two

were buried in western Ukraine on Saturday as officials from

both countries looked on, a move to ease a rare strain in

relations between the two close allies.



Poland was allowed to exhume the remains in the former

Polish village of Puzniki, in present-day Ukraine, earlier this

year after longstanding demands from Warsaw over the issue,

which has caused friction between the neighbouring countries.



With Polish Catholic priests officiating, the simple wooden

coffins of 42 Poles, each marked with a cross and flanked by

wooden cross, were placed in a long, narrow grave in a wooded,

abandoned cemetery.



Lanterns and wreaths draped in Polish red and white and

Ukrainian yellow and blue colours were laid alongside.



"The victims of the Puzniki massacre rested in an unmarked

grave for decades, but their memory endures for their loved ones

and those who fought for this remembrance, truth, and act of

elementary justice," Polish Culture Minister Marta Cienkowska

was quoted as saying by state news agency PAP.



"Today's burial is a restoration of dignity to those who had

it stripped from them in the most inhumane way."



Cienkowska expressed confidence that it would be possible to

locate and identify remaining victims, according to PAP.



Survivor Maria Jarzycka-Wroblewska, 90, said groups of men

had assured residents they would be safe and then the killings

occurred overnight.



"No one in my immediate family was murdered here, but

neighbours, friends and even a distant cousin were," she said.



"Thank God that the Ukrainian authorities and the Poles came

to an agreement and this is finally done...You cannot put all

Ukrainians in the same basket."



The abandoned village is among sites where Polish officials

say more than 100,000 people were killed by insurgents between

1943 and 1945.



Large swathes of modern-day western Ukraine were under

Polish control at the time. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA),

which fought against both Nazi German forces and the Soviet Red

Army, is widely held responsible for the killings as part of

efforts to limit Polish influence over the area.



The so-called Volhynia massacres have complicated relations

even as Poland has backed Ukraine against Russia's 2022 invasion

by supplying weapons and taking in almost a million refugees.



Ukraine has rejected Poland's description of the killings as

"genocide", saying thousands of Ukrainians were also killed in

events that were part of a wider conflict between the

neighbours.



The exhumations involving around 20 specialists had been

aimed at identifying victims and burying them. Polish officials

have called on Ukraine to allow more operations to take place.