Friday marks the 82nd anniversary of the 1943 Volhynia Massacre, where members of hardline Ukrainian militias attacked over 100 villages and killed thousands of Polish civilians.
The Massacre was the bloodiest of a series of killings of over 100,000 Poles carried out by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in German-occupied Poland from February 1943 to spring 1945.
Disagreements over how the events should be recognized and remembered are at the heart of long-standing tensions between the two countries, who have otherwise close relations.
Last month, the Polish parliament officially designated July 11 the National Day of Remembrance for the Polish Victims of Genocide by Ukrainian Nationalists.
On Friday morning, top politicians gathered for a commemorative mass and wreath-laying ceremony in central Warsaw, while others are set to join events later in Chełm, a city in the eastern borderlands.
The Volhynia region, like much of present-day western Ukraine, was part of Poland during the interwar period.
During Germany’s wartime occupation, armed Ukrainian nationalist factions fighting for political independence committed atrocities against the local Polish population. Many Polish politicians feel the Ukrainian government has been slow or unwilling to recognize what happened.
In a post on X, the conservative President Andrzej Duda said that the events of July 11, 1943, were a “ruthless crime” and “one of the most tragic experiences in our history.”
“At the hands of Ukrainian nationalists, our defenseless compatriots perished: ordinary people, civilians, innocent victims, often killed in churches where they were attending Sunday mass.
“They were murdered because they were Poles.”
Many Poles regard the events as acts of genocide, and the new law, which brought the memorial day into being, does so too. Many Ukrainians, on the other hand, see the killings as part of an armed conflict for which both sides were equally responsible.
The issue remains the single most sensitive issue in Polish-Ukrainian relations, but steps have been taken recently to address the friction. Earlier this year, researchers started exhuming the remains of victims who died at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists in the village of Puzhnyky, bringing to an end a years-long moratorium on such investigations.
Duda called on Ukrainian authorities to continue this work in order to allow the families of the victims “to say a dignified farewell to [their] loved ones.”
“Only on truth—even the most difficult truths—can mature and honest relations between nations, including between Poles and Ukrainians, be built,” he added.
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz made the same demands during a commemoration ceremony in Warsaw: “I want to build the future on this truth, which must be shown, on respecting the past.”
Kosiniak-Kamysz added that he “is not of those who could be described as trying to stoke some kind of discord between Poland and Ukraine,” referring to conservative and far-right politicians who tie the country’s support for Kyiv in its war with Russia to issues around historical justice.
Poland’s conservative President-elect Karol Nawrocki has said he won’t support Ukraine’s bids to join NATO and the EU until the discord over the legacy of the massacres in Volhynia is resolved.
Nawrocki is scheduled on Friday to participate in commemorations on the grounds of the yet-to-be-finished Museum of Remembrance of the Victims of the Volhynian Massacre in Chełm later on Friday.
The construction of the new museum started in 2020 under the previous conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government but progress has stalled since the current centrist coalition came into power in late 2023. The Ministry of Culture said there were inadequate funds for the plans, which led the local government in Chełm to file a lawsuit.
On Friday, Nawrocki pushed for increased funding for this museum.
“Poland needs this museum and this place in order to build awareness of the truth about the behavior of Ukrainian nationalists, but also not to allow the more than 120,000 victims to be forgotten,” he said.
by opolsce
12 comments
Interesting how this is covered in Ukraine. Here in *Fakty ta Komentari*, a major newspaper and website:
>In Ukraine, the horrific events in Volyn in 1943 are known as the Volyn Tragedy, while in Poland they are classified as the Volyn Massacre. July 2025 marks the 82nd anniversary of this tragedy – the mutual ethnic cleansing of the Polish and Ukrainian populations by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army on the one hand, and the Home Army on the other, with the participation of Schutzmannschaft battalions and Soviet partisans.
>…
>Historian Pavlo Hai-Nyzhnyk notes that when talking about the Volyn tragedy, we must consider why this could have happened in the first place. Why did Ukrainian ‘terrorism’ and the Ukrainian national liberation movement emerge?
>…
>He notes that the Volyn tragedy is only a consequence of all these events. In addition, there is not a single order from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, its leadership, or its commander-in-chief about any repression or extermination of the Polish population.
>On the same territory, Germans in disguise were operating, on the one hand, and Soviet partisans, i.e. underground NKVD units, on the other. All this provoked a chain reaction of mutual revenge.
>- At the same time, the UPA command had nothing to do with it. Another thing is that there were individual incidents where historians know the names and perpetrators. That is why the Volyn tragedy is not a massacre of Ukrainians against Poles, as our Polish neighbours show. This is a conflict provoked by the German authorities and the Russian-Soviet underground to bring the two peoples together under the pretext of previous contradictions,” says Hai-Nyzhnyk.
>The historian adds that there are known facts that the Polish police, Gestapo agents, who were served by ethnic Poles, had weapons and the right to shoot Ukrainians. Accordingly, there was a retaliatory action.
>- Later, these retaliatory actions became more calculated and extensive, but the UPA never spoke of exterminating the Polish population. These are all Soviet narratives, and those who disseminate information about this in Poland, and in particular in Ukraine, are, firstly, lying, and secondly, working for Russia to break up the Western civilisation front and to discredit Ukrainians and Poles in each other’s eyes.
>…
>We know only one thing: all the victims on the Ukrainian side of the Volyn tragedy are Ukrainian citizens without de jure citizenship, but are ethnic Ukrainians. Some of them took part in the national liberation struggle, while others were supporters of Ukrainian statehood, and were brothers, sisters and children of our people.
>Therefore, all of them need to be honoured, our candles and memory, and most importantly, we will never give up our honour and dignity for the political situation of today. This is our land, our people, and the innocently killed need to be honoured, and the heroes who defended these innocents should receive our worship and glory,” emphasises Hai-Nyzhnyk.
[What is the Volyn tragedy and can it become an obstacle for Ukraine on its way to the EU?](https://fakty.com.ua/ua/ukraine/20250711-shho-take-volynska-tragediya-i-chy-mozhe-staty-pereponoyu-dlya-ukrayiny-na-shlyahu-do-yes/)
Już mam dość tego pieprzenia tych wielkich ukraińskich historyków którzy uważają że cokolwiek može tłumaczyć tę masakrę. A ja się pytam – A co z zamachami UPA na Piłsudskiego z 1921 we Lwowie przed zamykaniem ukraińskich szkół i pacyfikacjami?
ukranian gaslighting poland, what could go wrong
Im so conflicted about all these Volyn Massacre postings.
On the one hand, this tragedy deserves to be recognized and acknowledged, and the countries need to come together and reach an agreement about how to handle the memory of this terrible time.
On the other hands, i cant help but feel like Putin’s hand is behind this topic rearing its head up now in a not unsuccessful attempt to create divisions in the union. This along with immigration is clearly a tool being used by the Russians in their information war in Poland and across Europe to create divisions and tensions.
The only reason why I am sceptical of Ukraine (obviously today Russia is worse) is because I literally had family killed during the wołyń massacre. The details of the murder is too disturbing.
Jak myślisz, co powinien zrobić naród ukraiński lub ukraińskie władze, aby ta tragedia nie przeszkodziła w dalszym rozwoju dobrych relacji sąsiadujących?
Krawczuk, Juszczenko, przewodniczący UKP KP i UKKK przeprosili Polaków za tragedię na Wołyniu
“Prosimy o wybaczenie za popełnione przestępstwa i zniewagi – to jest nasz główny motyw”.
Bólem zarówno dla Ukrainy, jak i dla Polski pozostaje tragedia Wołynia i konfliktu polsko-ukraińskiego w latach II wojny światowej, w której przepaść zostało zniszczonych tysiące niewinnych braci i sióstr. Zabijanie niewinnych ludzi nie ma usprawiedliwienia. Przepraszamy za popełnione przestępstwa i zniewagi – to jest nasz główny motyw. Prosimy o wybaczenie i w równym stopniu wybaczamy zbrodnie i niesprawiedliwości popełnione przeciwko nam – to jedyna duchowa formuła, która powinna być motywem każdego ukraińskiego i polskiego serca, które pragnie pokoju i zgody
https://www.istpravda.com.ua/short/2014/12/18/146107/
https://lb.ua/news/2016/06/03/336792_kravchuk_yushchenko_glavi_upts_kp_ugkts.html
Prezydenci Ukrainy nigdy nie zignorowali tragedii rzezi wołyńskiej.
P.S. Przepraszam, korzystałem z tłumacza
Isn’t that pro-russian?
The truth is – sooner or later they will have to dig up the bodies of our ancestors and with the current attitude it will be tragedy for Ukraine.
Not because how many of them are there – but because the methods used. Truly horrific and we’re not talking about burning churches but more like skinning people alive and so.
My clue is that these methods were largely pushed by nazi’s who teached them mass killing, also created 14th SS Galician Ukrainian division.
To this day those symbols, colors etc. Are used in today’s Ukraine – for example military inspirations.
But the Ukrainian goverment is pushing hard propaganda, to motivate people with those symbols and ideology(bandera, free Ukraine) – while we ONLY want exhumations, to bury our families with the traditions.
While it’s being a convenient tool – it’s also devastating to our relations and just wrong
The uncomfortable truth that almost nobody wants to face is that Ukraine does have a Nazi problem. Hell, you can go on YouTube and find a Vice documentary showing how they openly allow people on right wing terror watchlists to gather in Ukraine for a National Socialist Black Metal festival. Also that Azov military group is well known to be a neo-nazi organization. One can also easily find news articles about how the Ukrainian border guards acted toward indian exchange students trying to leave at the start of the invasion. Basically almost leaving them for dead.
Only noticed this now:
The article points out how
>Poland’s conservative President-elect Karol Nawrocki has said he won’t support Ukraine’s bids to join NATO and the EU until the discord over the legacy of the massacres in Volhynia is resolved.
while portraying Kosiniak-Kamysz as some sort of reasonable opposition to that position:
>Kosiniak-Kamysz added that he “is not of those who could be described as trying to stoke some kind of discord between Poland and Ukraine,” referring to conservative and far-right politicians who tie the country’s support for Kyiv in its war with Russia to issues around historical justice.
What the article leaves out is that Kosiniak-Kamysz said the same thing with regards to a possible Ukrainian EU membership:
>Ukraina nie może zostać przyjęta do UE, dopóki Warszawa i Kijów nie rozwiążą kwestii rzezi wołyńskiej
>Ukraine cannot be admitted to the EU until Warsaw and Kiev resolve the issue of the Volhynia massacre.
[Gazeta Prawna, July 2024](https://www.gazetaprawna.pl/wiadomosci/kraj/artykuly/9552441,kosiniak-kamysz-ukraina-w-unii-europejskiej-dopiero-po-rozwiazaniu-kw.html)
I find that quite manipulative.
I’m so tired of this whole debate about this topic. Just put it on hold until the war is over at least
Is there a memorial day for Katyn massacre? Or it’s different?
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