Polish experts began work to exhume victims of the World War II-era Volhynia massacres in Ukraine’s Ternopil region, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage said on April 24.

These are the first such efforts since Ukraine lifted its 2017 ban late last year on the search and exhumation of Polish war victims on Ukrainian territory.

The massacre in the village of Puźniki took place in February 1945 by a unit of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) led by Petro Chamczuk. According to various sources, between 50 and 120 Polish civilians were killed.

The ministry said the goal of the operation is to recover the victims’ remains, identify them and provide proper burial.

Poland has been one of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters in its struggle against Russia, but the relations between Warsaw and Kyiv have been strained by unresolved resentments left over from WWII.

The ire centres on the Volhynia massacres of 1943–1945, carried out by the UPA, resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 Poles, according to Polish estimates. An estimated 15,000 Ukrainians were killed in retaliation. The UPA were seeking to establish an independent Ukraine state. Kyiv has never apologised for the atrocities, irking Warsaw.

Poland has long sought unfettered access to burial sites within Ukraine to exhume and properly intern the remains of Polish victims. Kyiv eventually lifted the exhumations ban in November 2024.

At the time, Ukraine confirmed that “there are no obstacles to the conduct of search and exhumation work on Ukrainian territory by Polish state institutions and private entities in cooperation with the relevant Ukrainian institutions, in accordance with Ukrainian legislation.”

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called Kyiv’s decision a “breakthrough” in bilateral ties.

The dispute resonates deeply in Poland, where hundreds of thousands of relatives of those killed in Ukraine 80 years ago live.

The Volhynia massacres occurred in a region that was part of Poland before World War II and was under Nazi occupation before being annexed by the Soviet Union after the war. 

In 2013, the Polish parliament officially characterised the atrocities as “ethnic cleansing bearing the hallmarks of genocide.” 

Ukraine, however, has disputed this classification, framing the events as part of a broader conflict that inflicted suffering on both Polish and Ukrainian communities.