A joint Ukrainian-Polish expedition to the former cemetery of the village of Stari Zboishcha (today the Zboishcha microdistrict of Lviv) has concluded in Lviv. Dozens of Polish soldiers died there in September 1939 during the defense of Lviv from the German army.
This was reported by the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications.
Since August 4, experts have been working on exhuming the graves. During the work, two burial pits measuring approximately 2.5 by 4 meters were discovered.
According to archival and historical data, the first pit contained the remains of soldiers who died in battle on September 12, and the second contained those who died a few days later.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
There may be 40 to 50 people in the two burials, but the exact number is difficult to determine: the military burials partially overlapped with later civilian burials from the 1950s and 1960s. This disrupted the integrity of the skeletons.
All the dead were in military uniform and had personal belongings — toothbrushes, a mirror, religious medallions. 11 identification tags were found, which indicated the name, surname, year of birth, conscription point and religion. At the same time, shoes and belts with pouches and bayonets were missing — they were probably taken off after the battle as trophies.
Items of German origin were also found next to the Polish soldiers, including part of a helmet and fragments of a German badge. This confirmed the testimony of local residents that German soldiers may also have been buried at this site.
After the exhumation, experts took DNA samples to identify the deceased and hand over the remains to their families. The reburial of the recovered remains, in accordance with ritual and Christian traditions, is scheduled for the first week of October at the cemetery in Mostyski (Lviv region).
Local authorities say that after the expedition is completed, a green zone will remain outside the excavation area.
At the end of September, excavations are planned to begin in Poland, in the village of Yurechkova near Przemysl. According to archival data, soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army may be buried there.
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 honour 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 the 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 the 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.
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