Poland ready to start exhumations in Volyn Oblast within 24 hours

Karol Nawrocki, the head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), says his institution can start exhumation work in Volyn within 24 hours. [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.]

As reported by Polish news portal RMF24, at a press conference on Wednesday, Karol Nawrocki recalled that the IPN "has been consistently fighting since 2017 to ensure that all the results of exhumations and excavations in Volyn Oblast are true."

"In 2017, the IPN sent the first request for search and exhumation work. This request concerned a number of settlements (…). Between 2017 and 2024, we sent nine such requests. The Ukrainian side accepted none of these requests," Nawrocki said.

Nawrocki says that if the public declarations of politicians are not just political declarations, then the Institute of National Remembrance, the only institution that is ready to take up exhumation work in Volyn, is waiting for official confirmation and a response to the requests.

Karol Nawrocki stated that the IPN has both people and equipment at its disposal, so if there is an official decision on this issue, and not just a declaration, trained teams will go to Volyn Oblast.

"The Bureau of Search and Identification at IPN is ready to conduct a real search in Volyn within 24 hours. So we are waiting for official confirmation of this information," he added.

The president of the IPN also claims that the search can begin despite the ongoing war in Ukraine. The war has no impact on the effectiveness of the Institute of National Remembrance, he added.

On Tuesday in Warsaw, Polish and Ukrainian Foreign Ministers Radosław Sikorski and Andrii Sybiha issued a joint statement on exhumations, which have become a tension point in relations between the two countries.

Warsaw said that resolving historical disputes would be one of the prerequisites for Ukraine's accession to the EU.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance said that it plans the search and exhumation of Polish remains in Rivne Oblast in 2025, responding to requests from Polish citizens.