According to him, the joint work on the exhumation of the remains of the victims of the Volyn tragedy is to identify and repose the dead in both countries. Places of memory that will be organized as a result should become a place for unification, and not for further disputes or “using the topic in political battles,” he said.
Bodnar called on publicly discussing the losses of not only Poles, but also Ukrainians.
“We only look at what bad things happened to the Poles in modern Ukraine, but we must also look at what happened to all of us. What suffered both Ukrainians and Poles, what reasons and why this happened,” the ambassador said in an interview.
Kyiv and Warsaw must add mutual apologies for the events of the thirties of the last century and move on as partners, the diplomat believes.
“The main thing is to apologize to each other, to honor all the victims, erect monuments and crosses and work at the same time that this historical memory does not bother us and does not create problems for us today,” he added.
Context
Volyn tragedy (in Polish historiography – Volyn massacre) – a number of mutual ethnic purges, which during the Second World War on Volyn were conducted by the Ukrainian rebel army on the one hand, the Kraiov army and other Polish formations on the other. The exact number of victims on both sides is unknown. It is believed that 25-100 thousand Poles and from several thousand to 24 thousand Ukrainians became victims of purges.
In October 2024, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory reported that in 2025 they could search for work on And Exhumations of the Poles who became victims of the Volyn tragedy, although it was noted that many statements that sound in Poland on this subject are “unprofessional.”
November 25 of the same year, Foreign Ministers of Poland and Ukraine Radoslav Sikorsky and Andrei Sibiga accepted a joint statement On the creation of the Ukrainian-Polish working group, which will deal with the issue of the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy.
On February 9, 2025, the Ambassador of Ukraine to Warsaw Vasily Bodnar confirmed in an interview with TVN 24 that the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy will begin in the spring in the Ternopil region.
They started the work April 24th. “This story can become the latest page in the general interpretation of the past. We are looking for what unites us, and not what is disconnected. Our benevolent attitude motivates Polish partners to help us in conducting search work in Poland,” the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine said.
May 6 The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland stated that as a result of excavations in the Puzhniki of the Ternopil region bAt least 42 people – women, men and children were discovered.
