Poland has stated that it has discovered previously unknown mass grave during search operations in Volyn. PHOTO
During excavation work in the former villages of Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska in the Volyn region, a previously unknown mass grave has been discovered. It is believed to contain the remains of victims of the Volyn tragedy.
This was announced by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance, reports Censor.NET.
Details
The day before, the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance reported that from 20 April to 1 May, search operations would be conducted in the former villages of Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska to locate the remains of villagers who died in August 1943.
"On the site of the former Strazhytsia farmstead in Volia Ostrovetska, at the location where Ukrainian nationalists carried out a mass killing of Poles in August 1943, a previously unknown mass grave has been discovered. It is located a dozen metres from the memorial where exhumation work was carried out in 1992," reports the Institute of National Remembrance (INP).
"The preliminary stage of the excavations does not currently allow for an assessment of the exact dimensions of the grave, but this is undoubtedly a mass burial," they added.
Why the search for victims is taking place here
- The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance noted that at the end of August 1943 (on the night of 29 August, or 30 August according to other sources), Ostrivky and Volia Ostrovetska were subjected to an armed attack. According to archival sources, the vast majority of the villages’ inhabitants were tragically killed, and the villages themselves were burnt to the ground.
