Ukraine grants Poland permission to exhume 1939 war graves in Lviv
Ukraine has granted Poland permission to carry out exhumation work on the remains of Polish soldiers killed in 1939 and buried in the area of the former village of Zboiska, now part of the western city of Lviv, Ukraine’s Culture Ministry announced on June 11.
The renewed cooperation follows years of tension surrounding the treatment of war memorials and historical sites.
Ukraine imposed a moratorium on exhumations in 2017 after several Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) monuments were destroyed in Poland. The moratorium effectively ended last April when Ukrainian and Polish researchers carried out joint exhumations of the Volyn massacre victims in Ukraine’s Ternopil Oblast.
The Culture Ministry said the latest decision is a further step in Polish-Ukrainian cooperation on sensitive historical issues and follows the work of the Joint Polish-Ukrainian Working Group on historical matters.
“Ukraine confirms its readiness to continue search and exhumation work within the framework of the Joint Working Group,” the ministry said in a statement. It added that the exhumations at Zboiska represent a continuation of efforts to address historical memory and reconciliation.
The Zboiska site is believed to contain the remains of around 120 Polish soldiers who died fighting against Nazi German forces in 1939, Rzeczpospolita reported. The remains were first located in 2019, according to Polish officials. The Institute of National Remembrance of Poland (IPN) had submitted a formal request to excavate burial grounds in Zboiska and the nearby district of Pid Holoskom.
The ministry also lauded the April exhumations in the former village of Puzhnyky in Ternopil Oblast as the first successful step of this new cooperation.
Puzhnyky is associated with the 1945 killing of Polish civilians by the UPA during the Volyn massacres, one of the most painful and contentious chapters in Polish-Ukrainian history.
In a reciprocal gesture, Ukraine has received Poland’s approval to carry out its own search and exhumation activities in the Polish village of Yurechkova. Kyiv says it hopes such work can begin soon.
The Culture Ministry emphasized that the progress reflects the constructive relationship between the two countries and their shared commitment to historical truth and dignity for the dead.
“Joint remembrance and steps toward one another will unite our nations in the name of our shared European future,” the statement said.
In January, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called the agreement on exhumation efforts a “breakthrough,” while officials in Warsaw warned that unresolved historical issues could influence Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union and NATO.
The Kyiv IndependentDaria Svitlyk