Poland receives ‘positive signals’ from Ukraine in exhumation issue

19.08.2019 12:43

Ukrinform

Poland sees "positive signals" from the Ukrainian side in lifting the ban on the exhumation of Poles.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz made a corresponding statement in an interview with Rzeczpospolita, the Polish Radio reports.

"Jacek Czaputowicz also said that Poland received ‘positive signals’ from Ukraine in lifting the ban on the exhumation of victims of the Volyn tragedy," the news report reads.

In the opinion of the Polish foreign minister, the visit of the President of Ukraine to Poland, scheduled for the anniversary of the beginning of World War II, gives a chance to change in the Ukrainian stance on this issue.

During a meeting in Brussels on June 4, President of Poland Andrzej Duda asked President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky to restore the exhumation of Polish victims in Ukraine.

According to him, the permission of the Ukrainian side to resume exhumation of Polish victims in Volyn region will allow to honor the memory of the killed Poles and to normalize Poland-Ukraine relations.

Ukraine and Poland have different views on the events in Volyn and Eastern Galicia of 1943-1944. The Sejm of Poland called the Volyn tragedy the genocide of the Polish people, while the Ukrainian historians deny that. Polish historians rest the responsibility for the killings of civilians solely on the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and most Ukrainian historians hold both parties responsible for the crimes committed.