Ukraine can’t get one permit to find its WWII dead in Poland—yet approves Polish searches, Kyiv’s ambassador says
Ukraine’s ambassador says a permit awaiting regional approval has prevented researchers from searching a suspected Ukrainian burial site in Poland.
Poland has delayed a Ukrainian search for bodies in Łasków village, Ambassador Vasyl Bodnar of Ukraine has revealed to Polish broadcaster RMF24. Bodnar claims the eastern Polish village may hold the remains of civilians killed there by Polish underground forces in 1944. The permit issue is part of a larger dispute over how to remember the wartime killings of both Poles and Ukrainians.
Reciprocal searches have only recently resumed after years of tension, offering both countries a means to recover and identify victims while still disagreeing on historical responsibility. Bodnar has appealed to Poland to grant at least one permit for searches on its territory, blaming the holdup on "bureaucratic restrictions." He expects work to commence in August.
In July, Bodnar reported that Poland's Institute of National Remembrance had supported the Łasków application procedurally, but only the regional monuments conservator's approval remained. Ukraine had halted Polish exhumations in 2017 as a response to the destruction of Ukrainian memorial sites on Polish soil.
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