The communiqué said that in Puźniki “Cleaning and securing the area and setting up the research infrastructure has ended. “The research team has established the grave's range and size. Its top layer was unveiled, which was thoroughly cleaned” – informed.
Documentation and archiving works are underway. “The team began to undertake remains. All remains, without exception, will be subjected to the identification process. Genetic tests allow you to extract DNA regardless of the age of the victim – even children. Personal items are also secured during work, including Buttons and fragments of rosaries, “it was written.
Experts from the Pomeranian Medical University, the company “Volyn antiquity” and the Institute of National Remembrance take part in the works coordinated by the “Freedom and Democracy” Foundation. The works are entirely financed from the budget of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Exhumations in Volhynia
Puźniki is a former village in today's Ternopilian region in West Ukraine, where on the night of February 12-13, 1945, Ukrainian nationalists murdered – according to various sources – from 50 to 120 Poles.
On April 24, the first exhumations went there since the Ukrainian side abolished in November 2024, a ban on the search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims and conflicts in Ukraine.
Exhumations in Puźniki are a continuation of works carried out by the “Freedom and Democracy” Foundation from May to August 2023, ending with finding a grave, in which the remains of the victims of the crime rest. In January 2025, based on the results of the search, the Ukrainian authorities granted permission to exhumate the remains found.
