Ukraine has issued its first permits for the exhumation of victims from the Volhynia tragedy.

For the first time, Ukraine has permitted Poland to carry out the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia tragedy. This was announced on Friday, January 10, by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“Finally, a breakthrough. There is a decision regarding the first exhumations of Polish victims of the UPA. I want to thank the culture ministers of Poland and Ukraine for their fruitful cooperation. We await further decisions,” wrote Donald Tusk on social media X.

It should be noted that since 2017, there has been a ban on the exhumation of the remains of Polish victims of the Volhynia tragedy in Ukraine. This decision was made by the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory in response to the demolition of the UPA monument in the Polish village of Hruszowice. However, in 2019, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky allowed search operations in Lviv.

In July 2024, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz stated that Ukraine would not be able to complete the Euro-integration process until the issue of Volhynia is “resolved.” However, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz did not propose specific steps to address the historical dispute.

On October 1, 2024, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINP) reported that it plans to resume search operations and the exhumation of the remains of the victims of the Volhynia tragedy in 2025. This decision was made in light of appeals from Polish citizens.

According to the Polish Press Agency, between 2017 and 2024, the Polish Institute of National Memory sent nine official requests to the Ukrainian administration for permission to conduct search and exhumation operations at 65 locations in Ukraine. The Ukrainian side agreed to some of these requests.

The Volhynia tragedy refers to the mutual mass killings of Poles and Ukrainians in Volhynia during World War II (1942-1943). Warsaw claims that the tragedy resulted in the deaths of 100,000 Poles. However, various historians argue that the number of Polish casualties ranges from 30,000 to 70,000. Meanwhile, the number of Ukrainian fatalities is estimated to be between 5,000 and 20,000. Additionally, there have been disputes between Poland and Ukraine regarding the terminology used to describe these events. Warsaw labels the killings of Poles as “genocide,” while Ukraine officially refers to the events of that time as a “tragedy” and calls for mutual apologies.