In a joint statement published on Wednesday, the two ministers described the incident as an attempt to disrupt the constructive dialogue that has been developing between the two countries in recent months.
The desecration occurred in the hamlet of Monasterz, near the village of Werchrata in Poland's Podkarpackie region, where an original plaque commemorating members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) killed in a 1945 battle was replaced with a new inscription.
The original plaque, in both Polish and Ukrainian, stated: “Mass grave of Ukrainians who died fighting the Soviet NKVD in the Monasterz forest on the night of March 2–3, 1945.”
The NKVD was the Soviet Union’s notoriously brutal state security service.
The new plaque, installed without permission, reads: “Mass grave of Ukrainians, members of the UPA responsible for terror and genocide against defenceless Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish civilians. Lord God, have mercy on them and do not count against them their terrible acts committed against their brothers. Forgiveness does not mean forgetting, but healing of pain.”
A cross was also placed where a trident, a Ukrainian national symbol, had previously stood.
The memorial site, established in the 1990s, has been vandalised several times in the past. It marks the resting place of 62 UPA fighters who died in a Soviet-Polish military operation on March 2, 1945.
According to historical sources, the battle took place near the villages of Mrzygłody and Gruszka, not far from the town of Tomaszów Lubelski.
Those who died were later buried in Monasterz by members of the Ukrainian underground.
The incident came to light when border guards noticed changes to the site and alerted local police. According to Marzena Mroczkowska of Lubaczów County Police, officers dispatched to the scene carried out procedural steps including a full site inspection and photographic documentation.
A criminal investigation is now under way, supervised by the district prosecutor’s office in Lubaczów, to determine who was responsible for the unauthorised alterations.
In their statement, the culture ministers reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the Polish-Ukrainian strategic partnership and addressing historical disputes “in the spirit of dialogue and mutual understanding.”
They also stressed that “any acts of vandalism against sites of memory and burial fall under the jurisdiction of the appropriate authorities,” and called for the immediate removal of all illegally installed signs and symbols.
The wider historical context offers an explanation as to the sensitivity of the issue. The UPA, a Ukrainian nationalist paramilitary group, fought both Soviet and Polish forces during and after World War II.
While some Ukrainians view UPA members as anti-Soviet resistance fighters, in Poland they are often remembered for their role in killings of Polish civilians during the war.
The 1945 operation that led to the deaths of the UPA fighters buried in Monasterz was carried out by NKVD units with support from the Polish Army and communist police. On the same day, nearby Ukrainian villages were also subjected to brutal crackdowns. In Monasterz itself, 51 UPA members were reportedly killed by Polish communist police.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP