Poland's Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), a state body that investigates historical crimes, presented the findings at a news conference in Warsaw on Tuesday.
The discoveries follow years of restrictions on Polish searches and exhumations in Ukraine, a longstanding source of tension between the two countries.
IPN deputy head Krzysztof Szwagrzyk said the work had become possible after Ukraine granted long-awaited permits. Ukrainian teams had also been allowed to conduct searches and exhumations at two sites in Poland.
"We are now in a situation we have never been in before," Szwagrzyk said, referring to the reciprocal arrangements.
The largest discovery this year was at a former cemetery in Hołosko, now part of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, where investigators recovered the remains of 115 Polish soldiers killed fighting German forces during the defense of the city in September 1939.
Military equipment, uniform fragments and identification tags were found alongside the remains. The soldiers are expected to be reburied later this year.
Investigators also recovered the remains of 55 Polish civilians murdered by Ukrainian nationalists in 1943 in the former villages of Wola Ostrowiecka and Ostrówki.
A mass grave in Wola Ostrowiecka contained 48 people, including 24 children, 17 women and three men. The sex of four victims could not be established. Two graves in Ostrówki contained seven more victims.
IPN archaeologist Dominika Siemińska said the remains showed evidence of injuries consistent with violent deaths. Personal belongings, including wedding rings, religious objects and clothing, were also recovered.
The discoveries form part of renewed investigations into the Volhynia massacres, during which Ukrainian nationalist forces, particularly the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), murdered Polish civilians in what was then eastern Poland between 1943 and 1945.
Polish historians estimate that around 100,000 people were killed, predominantly women, children and the elderly.
The Volhynia region, then part of Poland, was occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939 under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact before being seized by Nazi Germany in 1941.
Searches also took place this year at Huta Pieniacka, another village whose Polish inhabitants were massacred in February 1944. Investigators located human remains scattered across an area of almost 200 square meters.
Siemińska said the number of victims buried there could not yet be determined.
Exhumations are planned for 2027, and Ukrainian authorities have already granted permission for the work.
The IPN also reported progress in identifying Polish soldiers recovered in 2025 at Zboiska, another former village now within Lviv. The remains of 31 soldiers were exhumed there, together with military equipment and identification tags.
Szwagrzyk said further identifications would be announced next week at the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, including the name of a soldier recovered at Zboiska. The identification process involves forensic examinations, DNA testing and efforts to trace surviving relatives.
Medical examiner Łukasz Szleszkowski of Wrocław Medical University said the procedures were the same as those used in contemporary criminal investigations.
"It makes no difference whether the remains are 83 years old or come from a contemporary criminal case. The same procedures apply to all of us," he said.
Szwagrzyk said the searches and identifications would continue for years, potentially generations, given the number of wartime victims whose burial places remain unknown.
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Source: IAR, PAP