Ukraine grants Poland authorisation to conduct exhumations in Lviv
Ukraine has granted Poland permission to carry out the exhumation of Polish soldiers killed in 1939 and buried in the territory of the former village of Zboiska, now within the city limits of Lviv.
Source: Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, as reported by European Pravda
Details: On Wednesday 11 June, the Ministry confirmed that Poland had received the official authorisation for the exhumation of the fallen Polish soldiers killed in 1939 that had been buried in the territory of the former village of Zboiska. This village is now part of the city of Lviv.
In return, Poland has granted Ukraine permission to conduct search and exhumation works in the village of Jureczkowa.
Ukraine expects these works to begin shortly.
The issue of wartime exhumations has long been a source of tension in Ukrainian-Polish relations. The Polish government, led by Donald Tusk, has consistently pressed Kyiv to lift the moratorium on such activities.
Background:
In late April 2025, exhumations began in Ternopil Oblast at the site of the now-abandoned village of Puzhnyky, where Polish civilians were killed in 1945.
Recently, the Polish Sejm introduced a memorial day supposedly to honour victims of ethnic cleansing in Volyn, referring to the events as a "genocide committed by the OUN and UPA on the eastern territories of the Second Polish Republic". Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs criticised this move. [The Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy was a series of events that led to the ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations in 1943 during World War II. It was part of a long-standing rivalry between Ukrainians and Poles in what is now Ukraine's west. Poland considers the Volyn tragedy a genocide of Poles – ed.]
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