On the territory of the former villages of Ostrivky and Volya Ostrovetska (in the Rivne rural community of the Kovel district of the Volyn region), Ukrainian and Polish specialists completed the exhumation of the bodies of people who died in August 1943.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance and the Institute of National Remembrance of the Republic of Poland.
Exhumation work lasted from July 13 to August 7. During them, the remains of 48 people were found in the territory of the former village of Volya Ostrovetska, and 6 bodies were found in the territory of the former village of Ostrivky. One of the bodies was found in Ostrivky near the cemetery, opposite the memorial — the date of burial is now being established.
Інститут пам'яті народів / Telegram
The remains belong to children, women, and men — all samples were taken for DNA analysis. After that, the remains will be reburied in the cemetery of the former village of Ostrivky.
At the same time, the Polish side claims that it managed to find the remains of 55 people, 26 of whom are children. According to them, more than 300 personal belongings have also been found.
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance also reported that the burial will take place on August 30, the anniversary of the armed attack on Ostrivky.
Volyn tragedy
In 1943-1944, mass murders of Poles took place in Volyn. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance cites official data of 120 000 Poles killed in Volyn 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.
Relations between Poland and Ukraine in the context of the Volyn tragedy
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 on resolving 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 for the first time allowed the exhumation of the bodies of Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy. And in May, the exhumation of the victims of 1945 was completed in the Ternopil region — in Poland it is called a breakthrough.
In September, a Ukrainian expedition began exhuming the bodies of UPA soldiers on Polish territory — in the village of Jureckova, Podkarpacie Voivodeship.
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