No remains of the UPA soldiers found at exhumation site in Poland

In the village of Jureczków (Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Poland), the stage of search work around a memorial cross has been completed. During the study, experts did not discover any burials.

This was reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.

This area is considered a potential burial site for 18 Ukrainian Insurgent Army fighters who died in battle with the Polish Peopleʼs Army in 1947.

The work has been suspended, but the Institute of National Remembrance believes it would be advisable to resume it later, when the vegetation has withered. This will allow for a more thorough inspection of the area.

Historically, Yurechkova was a Ukrainian village and belonged to the Lviv Voivodeship. After the war, the territory was ceded to Poland, and in 1947 its inhabitants were forcibly deported as part of Operation Vistula.

The search in Yurechkova is part of Ukrainian-Polish agreements on the excavation of victims of the World War II. Polish teams plan to work at 13 locations in Ukraine, and Ukrainian teams at four in Poland. Previously, experts have already found the remains of Polish soldiers in Ternopil and Lviv regions.

Relations between Poland and Ukraine in the context of exhumations

After Ukraine gained independence, the issue of the Volyn tragedy was repeatedly raised by politicians in both countries. Ukraine and Poland held joint events to honor the victims and tried to find points of understanding. However, after Poland recognized the Volyn tragedy as genocide in 2016, discussions intensified.

In response to the mass destruction of Ukrainian monuments in Poland in 2015-2017 and due to the inadequate investigation of these crimes, Ukraine imposed so-called moratoriums on the search and exhumation of the remains of Poles who were killed in 1943-1945 by UPA fighters.

In December 2020, the heads of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and the Institute of National Remembrance of the Republic of Poland agreed to hold consultations to resolve the problematic issues. They developed a draft regulation of the group to resolve them, but Poland has not yet approved it.

In June 2022, the Ministries of Culture of Ukraine and Poland signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the Field of National Remembrance. It provided for the search, exhumation, and burial of victims. The Memorandum was to come into force after the end of martial law in Ukraine.

However, Poland, during the full-scale Russian invasion, constantly raises the issue of searching for and exhuming the graves of Poles in Ukraine.

In 2023, Ukraine went to Poland and conducted joint research with the Poles on the territory of the former village cemetery of the village of Sadove, Chortkiv district, Ternopil region (the former village of Puzhnyky).

At the same time, Poland did not fulfill Ukraineʼs request to restore the memorial plaque at the burial place of UPA soldiers on Monastyr Mountain. The issue of its restoration in its original form, with the names of those buried in this mass grave, was raised at the highest level — the presidents of Ukraine and Poland.

• In January 2025, Ukraine allowed the exhumation of the bodies of Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy for the first time. And in May, the exhumation of the victims of 1945 was completed in the Ternopil region — in Poland it is called a breakthrough.
• Polish President Karol Nawrocki is looking forward to the continuation of the partnership between Kyiv and Warsaw. However, for this, he said, some historical issues need to be resolved — most likely, he was referring to the Volyn tragedy.

For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine, please follow us on X.