Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland: The memory of the Volyn tragedy should unite us.

The memory of the Volyn tragedy should unite Ukrainians and Poles, not divide them. This opinion was expressed by the Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, in an interview with PAP.

He noted that today, Ukraine and Poland are conducting joint work on the exhumation of the remains of victims of the Volyn tragedy, which will allow the families of the deceased to honor the memory of their ancestors.

"So that families can simply visit the graves of the victims, and these memorial sites will be a place for unity, not for further disputes or the use of the issue in political battles," he said.

According to Bodnar, it is necessary to discuss in the public sphere the losses not only of Poles, but also of Ukrainians.

" We only look at the bad things that happened to Poles in modern Ukraine, but we should also look at what happened to all of us. So, how did Ukrainians and Poles suffer, what were the reasons, and why did it happen," he said.

Bodnar called for honoring all victims and reconciliation.

"The main thing is to apologize to each other, to honor all the victims, to erect monuments and crosses, and to work together to ensure that this historical memory does not bother us and does not create problems for us today," he said.

• On May 6, Polish parliamentarian Paweł Kowal called the first exhumation work in many years to identify victims of the Volyn tragedy in Puzhnyky, Ternopil region, a "breakthrough" in Ukrainian-Polish relations.
• On June 11, it was reported that Ukraine had granted Poland permission to exhume the remains of Polish servicemen who died in Lviv in 1939.