Ukraine interested in speeding up search for Volyn tragedy victims – Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is interested in accelerating search efforts in villages where victims of the Volyn tragedy may be buried. Exhumation work will begin in two villages in two days.
In his evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine is keen to speed up search operations in villages where victims of the Volyn tragedy might be buried. The Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy refers to the ethnic cleansing of Polish and Ukrainian civilians in 1943 during World War II, which Poland considers a genocide of Poles.
Zelenskyy noted that every year on this day, Poland and Ukraine honor the memory of civilians killed in Volyn during the war. Ukrainian state representatives joined Polish officials in joint prayers both in Ukraine and Poland. He emphasized that Ukraine is doing its part to honestly establish the facts about those killed, with search efforts ongoing in places where villages once stood and people died. Exhumation work is set to begin in two days in the villages of Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska.
The president also highlighted a common threat: Russia, which he called a deadly threat to independence, states, every city, and every village. He stressed that while discussing the past, the future of Ukraine, Poland, and all of Europe must not be called into question.
Poland's Defence Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who attended memorial events in the Ukrainian town of Olyka, spoke about reconciliation and the inadmissibility of a "spiral of hatred." Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in his address for the National Day of Remembrance of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, stressed the need to preserve solidarity "based on truth, memory and hope" and cautioned against using remembrance as a tool of hatred.
Ukraine's ambassador to Poland also honored the victims at a memorial in Warsaw. Oleksandr Alforov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, confirmed that the search for burial sites of Polish victims will continue and expressed hope that searches for Ukrainian dead will begin in two villages in Poland. Meanwhile, Polish President Karol Nawrocki called for a legislative ban on the red-and-black flag of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in Poland.
