Head of Institute of National Remembrance of Poland Nawrocki on exhumations of victims of Volyn tragedy: Today we cannot talk about breakthrough
The head of the Polish National Remembrance Institute and presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki said that it is impossible to talk about a breakthrough in the case of exhumations of victims of the Volyn tragedy.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to RMF 24.
Thus, Nawrocki said that "today we cannot talk about a breakthrough."
"We have already experienced many such breakthroughs, or rather declarations of breakthroughs. The head of Polish diplomacy, Radoslaw Sikorski, announced one of them. "This did not happen. I don't know what the Prime Minister considers a breakthrough," he said.
He emphasized that we are talking about 1500 villages that disappeared from the map, about 120 thousand victims, so it would be a breakthrough to start exhumations.
"As the Institute of National Remembrance, we are ready to fulfill our duties. Is this a success? We don't know yet. There is no decision yet, we do not know what exactly the Prime Minister is talking about," Nawrocki added.
Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced a "breakthrough " regarding the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy.
The issue of exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy
As reported, in September, the Polish Foreign Ministry said that without resolving the issue of the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy, Ukraine cannot dream of joining the EU.At the same time, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that attempts to block Ukraine's accession to the European Union play into the hands of Vladimir Putin's policy.
During his visit to Warsaw on October 1, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Ukraine is ready to discuss with Poland controversial issues of common history, including the Volyn tragedy of 1943-1944.
On October 2, the UINP stated that they plan to conduct search operations for the victims of the Volyn tragedy in 2025. The Institute also stated that it remains open to cooperation with Polish institutions in the field of searching, preserving and caring for the places of memory of Ukrainians in Poland and Poles in Ukraine, and complained that official inter-institutional mechanisms for resolving problematic issues with the Polish side in the restoration and preservation of places of memory have not been in place for a long time.
Drobovich believes that Ukrainian and Polish officials need to finally move to constructive action "in the problematic issues of exhumation and burials," and proposed a "road map."
On October 4, the Polish Defense Minister reaffirmed his intention to block Ukraine's accession to the EU until the issue of exhumation and commemoration of the victims of the Volyn tragedy is resolved.
On November 26, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, after speaking with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, said that Kyiv had assured him that there were no obstacles to the search and exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy in Ukraine.
On January 11, the Ministry of Culture reported that Ukraine and Poland had exchanged lists of places to search for and exhume the remains of mutual historical conflicts. Kyiv is committed to "positive decisions" on this issue.
