On Tuesday, September 30, in Poland, a Ukrainian expedition consisting of researchers from the Dolya Memorial and Search Center from Lviv began search and exhumation work on the territory of Poland.
This is reported by Radio Liberty.
The expedition is exploring an area in the middle of a forest in the Carpathian Mountains in the village of Jureckova, Podkarpacie Voivodeship. Up to 18 fighters of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army who died in battle with the Polish Peopleʼs Army in 1947 may be buried there.
It is noted that they were defending themselves, protecting the civilian Ukrainian population from forced deportation.
On the first day, heavy rain in the Bieszczady Mountains complicated the search, but experts began removing soil at a spot marked with a metal cross. They are currently checking for signs of burials. It is not known for certain how the bodies of the dead were transported after the battle.
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 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 remains in Ternopil and Lviv regions.
The work will continue until October 4. If the remains are found, the exhumation could take about a month. The process is being monitored by representatives of the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, and police security is provided.
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 Sadovoe, 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 was called a breakthrough.
- Polish President Karol Nawrocki is looking forward to continuing the partnership between Kyiv and Warsaw.
- However, for this, according to him, 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.