“We need to remember the victims of the crimes committed by the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) / UPA (Ukrainian Insurgent Army), whose lives were taken away in the name of a chauvinist ideology. Everyone deserves to be remembered. Memory cannot be an object of political trading,” added the deputy minister.

 

Deputy Minister Przydacz took part in a holy mass celebrated by bishop Vitaliy Skomarovsky in the Saint Peter and Paul Cathedral in Lutsk. He also attended a ceremony organized by the Polish Embassy in Kyiv to honour the inhabitants of the Yanova Dolina who fell victim to a massacre carried out by the UPA units on the night of 22/23 April 1943, which preceded the tragic events of the “Bloody Sunday” of 11 July 1943 in Volhynia. In his speech the deputy minister also stressed the need to renew efforts in Ukraine to search and exhume the remains of Poles who were victims of wars and political repressions to ensure that they are buried in dignity.

 

The ceremonies also brought together vice speakers of the Sejm and Senate, representatives of the Polish President and other state institutions, social organizations and families of the victims of the massacre.

 

The Volhynia Massacre was a planned ethnic cleansing carried out by members of Ukrainian nationalist organizations in 1943-45 in the territories of Poland’s south-eastern provinces. Approximately 100,000 Polish nationals lost their lives: Poles, Armenians, Jews, Czechs, and other national minorities. Ethnic Ukrainians who helped Poles were also murdered. The massacre was particularly cruel and atrocious. In 2016, the Sejm proclaimed 11 July National Day Commemorating the Victims of Genocide carried out by Ukrainian nationalists against Polish citizens.

 

MFA Press Office