Amid sunflower fields and forests, joint Polish-Ukrainian teams of archaeologists have been carefully excavating the remains of victims.<\/p>\n
“We want to restore their first and last names … to fulfil the duty that rests on us as heirs of those who were murdered here,” said Karol Polejowski, deputy president of the IPN.<\/p>\n
The remains of over 50 people have been recovered in a series of exhumations taking place in the area, but they have yet to be identified. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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Archaeologists recover human remains at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Serhii Okunev \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
A handmade wooden cross, planted near the graves, is one of the few signs that the villages ever existed.<\/p>\n
Political leaders in both countries believe the exhumations can be a first step in repairing relations, which have been strained this year by a rift triggered<\/a> when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named a military unit after the UPA.<\/p>\n “Driven to the field of death barefoot” \u00a0<\/p>\n In a white tent around six miles from the Polish border, experts meticulously lay out the skeletons of recovered victims, measuring bones and carefully trying to match broken skull fragments.<\/p>\n A small number of other artefacts \u2014 rosaries, religious medallions and shoes \u2014 have also been unearthed under the field of yellow-and-black sunflowers, one of the national symbols of Ukraine.<\/p>\n “The remains were arranged in a highly disordered manner. Most of the bodies had been brought to the burial pit and simply dumped into it,” Olga Mineiko, an anthropologist at the Ukrainian Memorial and Search Center, told AFP on the site.<\/p>\n The victims were likely “driven to the field of death barefoot and without personal belongings,” said Polejowski.<\/p>\n Archaeologists work with human remains at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n Serhii Okunev \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n The genetic material is collected, with the IPN appealing to Poles who believe they may have lost relatives in the massacre to provide their own to help find matches.<\/p>\n Forensic specialists and anthropologists will also examine the bones to determine the approximate age, sex and cause of death of each of them.<\/p>\n It is believed that 30 to 40% of the 50 remains so far discovered at the site were children, according to Polejowski.<\/p>\n Diplomatic spat\u00a0<\/p>\n The massacres have been a recurring point of contention between Warsaw and Kyiv.<\/p>\n The UPA was a paramilitary organization tied to the Ukrainian independence movement that fought the Soviet Union’s Red Army.<\/p>\n But it collaborated with the Nazis when they first invaded the Soviet Union, clashed with the Polish resistance and killed Poles, Jews and other civilians.<\/p>\n Since Russia invaded in 2022, the UPA has been honored in Ukraine as a force that fought for independence from Moscow under the Soviet Union. Kyiv insisted Zelenskyy’s choice of name for the military unit was not directed against Warsaw.<\/p>\n But Polish President Karol Nawrocki withdrew Poland’s highest national honor<\/a> from him in response. Three former Ukrainian presidents later returned their White Eagle awards to Poland in solidarity with Zelenskyy, BBC News reported.<\/p>\n In Poland, the issue has become even more politicized as nationalist parties seek to embolden their base ahead of parliamentary elections next year \u2014 part of a broader campaign to whip up anti-Ukrainian sentiment.<\/p>\n Poland is home to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees \u2014 with a backlash against their presence having surged during a divisive presidential election campaign last year, won by the right-wing Nawrocki.<\/p>\n The country is still the main hub for military and humanitarian aid deliveries to Ukraine, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government has repeatedly called for a de-escalation.<\/p>\n Warsaw has welcomed efforts by Zelenskyy to cool the tension, including the promise of opening classified intelligence documents.<\/p>\n As Tusk and Zelenskyy try to bury the hatchet, in the Ukrainian fields near the Polish border, plans are underway for a proper farewell to those uncovered.<\/p>\n “We want them to be buried here, where they lived, where each of them had their dreams and plans, and wanted their life to unfold,” said Polejowski. “In this soil they should rest.”<\/p>\n Last month, Tusk announced the creation of a national memorial to the victims, BBC News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Truth is our duty toward the victims, but also a way to overcome a painful past for the sake of a better future,” he said. “Memory cannot be the servant of hatred. The answer to nationalism cannot be more nationalism.”<\/p>\n A cross is seen at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026.<\/p>\n Serhii Okunev \/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n![\"UKRAINE-POLAND-HISTORY-WWII](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/gettyimages-2287466987.jpg#.jpeg\")
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