Speaking in Toruń on Sunday, Sikorski emphasized that resolving this issue is crucial for Ukraine’s aspirations to join the European Union.
During a lecture titled "Poland in the European Union" at the Faculty of Law and Administration of Nicolaus Copernicus University, Sikorski addressed the ongoing tension surrounding Ukraine's refusal to allow the exhumation of Polish victims from the Volhynia massacre.
“In Poland, there is national consensus on the issue of exhuming the victims of the Volhynia massacre. It is not a political matter, nor should it be a subject of negotiation—it is a Christian duty,” Sikorski stated. He drew a comparison to Poland's post-World War II efforts to allow Germany to exhume and rebury Wehrmacht soldiers who died on Polish soil.
“When Poland regained its freedom, there were unresolved issues of exhuming soldiers from the invading Wehrmacht. We did not bargain with Germany; we simply allowed them to exhume and bury their soldiers. Ukraine did the same. Over the past several decades, more than 100,000 Wehrmacht soldiers have been buried in Ukraine. And rightly so,” Sikorski added.
He urged Ukraine to approach the exhumation of Volhynia victims with similar respect. “My one request to the Ukrainian side is: treat the victims of the Volhynia massacre no worse than Wehrmacht soldiers.”
Sikorski stressed that addressing this sensitive issue would alleviate a long-standing strain on Polish-Ukrainian relations and facilitate Ukraine’s path to EU membership.
“The sooner Ukraine takes action, the sooner this issue will disappear from our bilateral relations, and the less it will hinder Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. It is in Ukraine’s interest. On this issue, there is no disagreement in Poland, unlike on many other topics, despite the heated nature of our political debate,” the Polish chief diplomat concluded.
The Volhynia massacre
The Volhynia massacre was carried out between February 1943 and the spring of 1945 by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Nazi German-occupied Poland, according to Poland’s National Institute of Remembrance (IPN).
Some 100,000 ethnic Poles in total were slaughtered in the 1940s by Ukrainian forces, according to some estimates.
On July 11, 1943, the day of the worst bloodshed, Ukrainian nationalists attacked 100 villages largely inhabited by Poles in what was then Nazi-occupied eastern Poland and is now western Ukraine.
The massacre was part of an operation carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), whose plan was to have a sovereign and nationally homogenous Ukraine after the war.
The Volhynia region, which was within Poland's borders prior to World War II, was first occupied by the Soviets in 1939, and then by the Nazi Germans in 1941.
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Source: IAR, PAP