A breakthrough in the search and exhumation of the remains of Poles in Ukraine is still very distant; Poland wants a systemic solution to the issue of authorizations for such work, said in Mościska, Ukraine, the deputy president of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), Dr. hab. Karol Polejowski, during the ceremonial burial of the remains of Polish Army soldiers. These soldiers fell in September 1939 while defending Lviv and were buried at that time in Lwów-Zboiska. Their exhumation took place in August.
In a conversation with journalists, Polejowski recalled that Poland expects Ukraine to introduce a systemic solution to the problem of authorizations for search and exhumation. Applications have long been filed with the authorities by the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), and they are ready. They only need to be approved.
“We are here, burying Polish soldiers from September 1939. This is the first step. A breakthrough is still very far away. It has not happened yet, and perhaps we will wait a long time for it. But sooner or later this first step had to be taken. It was taken this year,” the IPN deputy president said.
He explained that 26 applications were submitted to Ukraine this year. One was approved positively – this was the application related to the exhumations in Zboiska; nine applications were rejected – for reasons that remain unclear to us. The remaining 16 applications were left without review.
When asked about the involvement of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in search operations in the village of Ugły in Volhynia in the Rivne region, he said that the authorization for the work in Ugły had been issued by the Ukrainian side to the Ukrainian company Dola. No institution of the Polish state, including the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), was a party to this process.
“I see reports in the media, for example from Ms. Romanowska, who has become the face of this entire initiative and is calling for it to be taken over. But the question arises: on what legal basis is the Institute supposed to become involved? We are not a party to this, nor is the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. To put it plainly: this is a matter the Ukrainian authorities have handled on their own,” he noted.
He stressed that the IPN had submitted to its Ukrainian counterpart an application for authorization to undertake activities in Ugły.
“The application of the Institute of National Remembrance for search and exhumation work in Ugły rests with the Ukrainian authorities. I ask that the Ukrainian side review this application positively so that we can travel to Ugły in accordance with the Polish-Ukrainian agreement signed in the 1990s.”