President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that all archives of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Foreign Intelligence Service regarding the Volyn tragedy will be opened in Ukraine.
He wrote about this in a telegram.
The President added that Ukraine will provide an additional number of permits for search and exhumation work. At the meeting on the policy in the Polish direction, formats for expanding the dialogue between Ukraine and Poland were also discussed. Zelensky specified that he would ask government officials and the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada to consider the possibility of increasing funding for the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
On July 17, the Polish Sejm voted for a resolution to honor "the memory of the victims of the genocide committed against Poles by Ukrainian nationalists" in 1939-1947. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry responded and recalled that on July 11, Ukraine paid tribute at the highest level to all victims of the Volyn tragedy.
Volyn tragedy
In 1943-1944, mass murders of Poles took place in Volhynia. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance cites official data of 120 000 Poles killed in Volhynia and the southeastern provinces of the Second Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and also mentions 5 000 Ukrainians killed. Ukrainian historians cite other figures: up to 20 000 Ukrainians killed and 35-40 000 Poles killed.
Discussions are also ongoing regarding the perpetrators and organizers of the crime. In Poland, the Volyn tragedy is called a "massacre", officially recognized as genocide, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army is blamed, but this interpretation is not accepted in Ukraine.
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