“A false document is circulating online, allegedly concerning the suspension of the search and exhumation works in Puźniki. I have just received confirmation from Ukraine’s Minister of Culture, Mykola Tochytskyi, that he did not sign any such document and that it is a Russian provocation,” warns Michał Dworczyk on the X platform.
Puźniki is a former village in today’s Ternopil Oblast in western Ukraine, where during the night of February 12 to 13, 1945, Ukrainian nationalists massacred—according to various sources—between 50 and 120 Poles. On April 24, exhumations began at the site—marking the first such efforts since Ukraine lifted, in November 2024, a ban on the search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims of wars and conflicts on Ukrainian territory. During the exhumation works in Puźniki, the remains of at least 42 individuals—women, men, and children—have been uncovered.
The work is being coordinated by the “Freedom and Democracy” Foundation and involves experts from the Pomeranian Medical University, the Volhynian Antiquities company, and the Institute of National Remembrance. The project is fully funded by Poland’s Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Meanwhile, as Michał Dworczyk reports on X, a false document allegedly ordering a halt to the search and exhumation work in Puźniki is spreading online.
“I have just received confirmation from Ukraine’s Minister of Culture, Mykola Tochytskyi, that he did not sign any such document and that this is a Russian provocation,”
he writes.