"We have a friendly team": archaeologist Alina Kharlamova tells how the Ukrainian-Polish expedition worked this spring in Volyn
We worked from April 20 to May 1 on the territory of the former Polish villages of Ostrivki and Wola Ostrowiecska. Up to twenty people from both sides. The work was monitored by the police. Before the start of the work, the sites were inspected by explosives technicians. We were setting up a mobile shelter.
In Wola Ostrowiecska, we checked two locations. At one of them, we found a mass grave. The first day was pure luck. The first excavation immediately brought us to human bones. We cleared the area, saw the outlines of the pit, and realized that it was a mass grave.
There were the remains of at least five people there, including fragments of a childʼs skeleton. We will look at the exhumations in more detail, but I think there are more of them.
In Ostrivki we found both mass and individual burials. A local forester led us to one of the sites, who had found a human bone. The remains were buried shallowly — about 25 centimeters from the surface. We removed a layer of needles and leaves — and immediately found human bones.
It is clear that this is not a regular burial in a cemetery, but an event, most likely, related to a tragedy. If the person had been buried in a Christian way, the remains of a wooden coffin would have remained in the ground, but we did not notice this.
During the search, the team relied on historical eyewitness accounts, archival data, aerial photographs, and the results of previous research and field analyses.
Міністерство культури та національної спадщини Польщі / Facebook
The nature of the grave is important. When the bodies are arranged chaotically, in different poses and on top of each other, this is a typical picture of a mass grave. We clear such a grave to see the contours, size and approximately calculate how many people are lying there. We do not open the remains much, because they need to be preserved for exhumation, when anthropologists will work with them.
During cleaning, the sunʼs rays heat the remains — they quickly dry out and begin to crumble, which can cause the loss of important information. To prevent this from happening, we only clean them from above, fix them, cover them with agrofibre and cover them with soil again. We always write down the GPS coordinates of the burial in the report.
Polish consuls and representatives of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance monitored our work. In Ostrivki, the SBU representatives installed a video camera near the mass grave so that no one could stage provocations.
We maintain documentation together with our Polish colleagues: we number the excavations the same way, exchange photos and drawings so that the reports from both sides match. There is no hostility on site at all. We have a friendly team, I have not seen any differences of opinion.
These were not the first excavations in the villages of Ostrovki and Volya Ostrovetska. Exhumations were carried out there in 1992, as well as in 2011 and 2015.
Міністерство культури та національної спадщини Польщі / Facebook
"We are ready for the next steps": The Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine Ivan Verbytskyi says that Ukraine is issuing the necessary permits and coordinating the process together with Poland
The past year was truly successful for Ukrainian-Polish relations. We resumed search and exhumation work in Ukraine and Poland. The process is coordinated by a joint working group that the ministries of culture of both countries created at the end of 2024.
In December, we agreed on plans for this year: five locations in Ukraine and three in Poland were selected for priority work. Ukraine has already issued all five permits on its territory. Specialists have already completed work at two locations, and another will begin on June 8.
Then we will meet again to determine the next steps and resolve practical issues. For example, when we exhume people, they need to be reburied in a designated place.
Somewhere in the cemetery there is not enough space, somewhere we need to clear the bushes and determine who will do it (some of this is decided in Ukraine, some in Poland).
We work in a spirit of trust, respect, and mutual understanding. During war, Ukrainians are especially acutely aware that every deceased person has the right to a grave, and relatives have the right to honor their memory.
"Relations between states are one thing, but the attitude of Poles towards Ukrainians is another": Polish historian Łukasz Adamski explains why exhumations are not enough for societies to understand each other
Relations between Ukraine and Poland cannot be called bad. The governments and militaries of both countries maintain regular contacts. But relations between states are one thing, and the attitude of Poles towards Ukrainians is another.
Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs decree is not dissatisfied because Ukraine and Poland interpret history differently, but because it is perceived as if he disrespects Polish pain and the memory of the victims of UPA. In fact, it is also about dignity: what Ukraine has the right to do and how Poland should react to it.
In Ukraine, the ruling elite wants to independently shape its memory policy and independently decide who is its hero and who is not. In contrast, Polish society considers such steps to be disrespect for the memory of the victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and a cynical attitude towards Polish pain.
Poles want Kyiv to take their sensitivities into account and at least not add fuel to the fire. Ukraine should realize that for Poles whose relatives died in Volyn, UPA is not a symbol of the struggle against Moscow, but a historical trauma.
Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated the soldiers of the Special Operations Forces on the 10th anniversary of the establishment of SOF and awarded them with state awards. There, he awarded the Separate Special Operations Center "North" of the SOF the honorary title "named after the heroes of UPA", May 27, 2026.
Instead, Poland lacks empathy for Ukrainians who are now living under shelling. The Soviet regime and the Holodomor left much deeper wounds in Ukraine than the communist regime in Poland. There would be less emotion in Poland if society understood that for most Ukrainians the UPA is primarily a symbol of the struggle for independence and resistance to Soviet rule, and not a symbol of anti-Polish violence.
Polish nationalists and Ukrainian skeptics often behave arrogantly. They use Kyivʼs communication mistakes for their own political purposes. For example, to incite public sentiment against Ukrainian refugees.
A paradox arises: in Ukraine, nationalism is visible at the level of official symbols, but Ukrainians are usually very tolerant. In Poland, the political and intellectual elite is pro-Ukrainian, but ordinary Poles show aversion to Ukrainians much more often than Ukrainians to Poles.
Protest in Warsaw during the visit of Volodymyr Zelensky. One of the leaders of the Polish far-right party "Confederation" Sławomir Menzen voices demands to the authorities of Poland and Ukraine: to suspend financial assistance to Ukraine, restrict the entry of Ukrainian citizens to Poland, and urgently allow the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, December 19, 2025.
Getty Images / «Babel'»
Threats that Poland will block Ukraineʼs European integration have been heard since 2017-2018. Foreign policy is always highly dependent on emotions within the country.
Sociological polls in Poland show that citizens want three things: to exhume and bury their compatriots, to help Ukraine fight against Russia, and to adjust the Ukrainian memory policy built around the UPA.
I am sure that Warsaw will only benefit if Ukraine joins the EU, but society is putting pressure on politicians. If emotions do not subside, even the ratification of the agreement on Ukraineʼs accession may be at risk. Just as, for example, Greece blocked Macedoniaʼs accession to NATO for years because of the countryʼs name.