The Volyn tragedy, or Kyiv and Warsaw resist Russian imperialism

Exclusive. Kyiv and Warsaw exchanged lists of places for searching and exhuming the remains of victims of historical conflicts. Ukraine is doing everything necessary to ensure that there are no misunderstandings between Ukrainians and Poles in complex issues of the historical past. Speculations on the topic of the Volyn tragedy play into the hands of the Russian dictator Putin, who seeks to disrupt the Ukrainian-Polish understanding in order to weaken both Ukraine and Poland.

Working visit of the President of Ukraine to Poland

Moscow calls on Warsaw to stop supporting the Kyiv regime in memory of those killed in the Volyn massacre, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Maria Zakharova, shed crocodile tears in July.

"Without much hope that we will be heard in Warsaw, we call on the Polish authorities, simply for the sake of the memory of those who died in the terrible massacre in Volhynia, to finally stop recklessly supporting the Kyiv regime," said the press secretary of the Russian diplomatic service. "The crimes committed by them against the residents of Donbass, against the Russian-speaking people, are nothing more than a request to continue the work of Ukrainian nationalists during the Second World War," Zakharova continued. - And if you support, than you are better? You become the same as the one who killed your ancestors back then, in the forties."

Former "people's governor" of Donbass, leader of Donetsk separatists and Russian collaborator Gubarev asks to stop the "meat grinder", while Russian diplomats continue to tell "non-fictional" stories in the spirit of "in panties and a T-shirt, like Jesus nailed to a board", propagandizing the war and inciting national hatred in the post-Soviet space. In 2014, propaganda released a story about a three-year-old boy "crucified" in the center of Slavyansk, Donbass. The storyteller was immediately exposed, and in 2021, on the Dozhd TV channel, she stated that she told the story of the "crucified boy" allegedly from someone else's words and complained that, despite the lie, she was treated "very badly" in Russia. And if the story with the "crucified boy" is fake, then the losses of the Russian army of occupation, which exceeded the mark of 700 man, judging by Gubarev's groans, the true truth.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on January 15 that he would not allow the issue of the Volyn tragedy to be used in "political games." He assured of his intention to consistently work on a "quick, systemic solution" to this problem. According to him, Ukraine and Poland find a "common language and methods of joint actions" when it comes to the problem of the Volyn tragedy "and these delicate, dramatic issues of our history."

"They need sympathy on the part of Ukraine in relation to Poland and on the part of Poland in relation to Ukraine. It should be parallel. I will not allow this complex, dramatic history of Poland to be used in some political games, but I will also very consistently work on a quick, systematic solution to this problem," Donald Tusk emphasized in particular.

On January 10, the Polish Prime Minister announced that a decision had been made to exhume the first Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy in Ukraine. Andrey Sybyga, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, commented on his statement, noting that similar agreements between the countries are a sign that Kyiv and Warsaw "respect each other and together we resist Russian imperialism." "Any agreement in the relations between Ukraine and Poland is a blow to Moscow," the minister emphasized.

Kyiv and Warsaw have exchanged lists of places for the search and exhumation of the remains of victims of historical conflicts, the Polish press reports with reference to the Deputy Minister of Culture of Ukraine for European Integration Andriy Najos, who heads the working group of the two countries "on the settlement of problematic issues in the historical sphere" from the Ukrainian side. It is primarily about the exhumation of the remains in the mass grave found in the Ternopil region in 2023. Kyiv, in turn, must get access to the burial sites of UPA members killed by the Red Army in Poland.

The Ministries of Culture of Ukraine and Poland will continue negotiations at the working group level regarding historical disagreements, says in the joint statement of the departments on January 15. In December, the first meeting was held to settle issues related to the right to decent burial of victims of wars and repressions in Polish-Ukrainian relations. The agencies announced the second meeting of the working group at the end of January 2025.

"We are convinced that the further work of the group and its results will demonstrate the readiness of both sides to honor the memory of the killed and the dead - Poles in Ukraine and Ukrainians in Poland. These works will be carried out in the spirit of mutual respect, openness of dialogue and other values ​​common to both peoples," the statement said in particular.

Every regulated bilateral issue of Polish-Ukrainian relations is a painful blow to the positions of dictator Putin, whose imperialism threatens all European countries.

Vera Perovskaya