Ukraine’s foreign minister says agreement on exhumation of Volyn tragedy victims is “blow to Moscow”
Pravda Ukraine
Andrii Sybiha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, has praised the agreement between Kyiv and Warsaw on the exhumation of the victims of the Volyn tragedy. [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.]
Source: Sybiha on X (Twitter), as reported by European Pravda
Details: Commenting on a statement by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk about the agreement on the first exhumations of Polish victims of the Volyn tragedy, Sybiha said that Ukraine and Poland “respect one another and defend [ourselves] from Russian imperialism together”.
“Each resolved bilateral issue is a blow to Moscow,” the diplomat stressed, expressing hope for the “further implementation of agreements with mutual respect and reciprocity”.
Background:
- Warsaw has previously stated that resolving historical disputes will be one of the preconditions for Ukraine’s EU accession.
- The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance recently announced plans to include the search and exhumation of Polish remains in Rivne Oblast in its 2025 action plan in response to requests from Polish citizens.
- In late November, Polish and Ukrainian foreign ministers Radosław Sikorski and Andrii Sybiha issued a joint statement on the issue of exhumations, which has become a stumbling block in the relations between the two countries.
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