The Ukrainian side completed search operations in the village of Lasków (Lublin Voivodeship, Poland) and found the remains of more than 40 Ukrainians there.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
Among them are the bodies of women, children and men. Group and individual burials were discovered there. Further, during exhumation studies (they are planned for the spring of 2027), the Ukrainian side will establish the age, gender and causes of death of the buried people.
These search operations lasted from October 2 to 16.
According to various historical sources, the mass murder of Ukrainians by Polish armed forces (Home Army and the "Peasant Battalions") in Lasków took place on March 10, 1944, when over 300 people died. Historians and experts from Ukraine and Poland have established data on 327 residents of Lasków who died in 1944.
However, some historians cite a higher number of victims — around 350 people. Further research will allow us to establish the final number of those killed.
This is the second search operation by the Ukrainian side in Poland after a long break. In the fall of 2025, a Ukrainian search and exhumation expedition worked in the village of Yurechkova on the basis of official permission from the Polish authorities. They searched there for the remains of the UPA fighters, but they were never found.
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 destruction of Ukrainian monuments in Poland, Ukraine imposed a moratorium on the exhumation of Polish graves. Despite agreements in 2020 and 2022 on cooperation in the field of historical memory, the issue remained unresolved.
In 2023, Ukraine allowed joint research of the burials in Puzhnyky, but Poland has still not fulfilled Kyivʼs request to restore the memorial plaque on the grave of UPA soldiers on Monastyr Mountain.
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.
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