Poland tells Ukraine to exhume second world war victims even amid Russia’s invasion

26 comments

1. Tone deaf. Must be election time over there.

2. Well, Ukraine could do it during 20 years of its independence. Poland and some last relatives of victim wanted to do a proper burial. Even German Wehrmacht or Soviet Red Army soldiers have own burial place in Poland. Yet, Polish civilians killed in genocide not. They had 20 years to do it, but decided not. They are reaping the storm they sow.

   EDIT: Put your minuses wherever you want. Burial of victims is normal, expected human behavior and the obstacles which Ukraine does is just against Ukraine interest.

3. Ukraine has practically been sabotaging this effort for the last 35 years. This is the only moment to put effective pressure on its political elites, simple as that. And yes, we will veto any integration efforts if the exhumations aren’t properly carried out.

4. Ukraine allows the exhumation of Nazi German soldiers, it’s currently ongoing “even amid Russia’s invasion”. https://www.dw.com/pl/ukraina-szcz%C4%85tki-%C5%BCo%C5%82nierzy-wehrmachtu-w-nowych-okopach/a-65475530 Ukrainians and German Nazis were good friends. They don’t want to allow for exhumation of Polish victims of Ukrainian Nazis because they’re afraid of the public backlash that will follow with each brutally murdered Polish child and woman.
   It was hell on earth, and those responsible are still cherished as National Heroes of modern Ukraine.

5. Ukraine pre-Euromaidan ->Politically an Oligarchical shithole not super different from Belarus.

   Ukraine post-Euromaidan ->They’ve had more important things to do. Like dealing with Russian shitfuckery (which started pretty much immediately in 2014 and have only escalated since then to put it mildly).

   In short, Ukraine has been busy. It’s very busy right now and keeping its citizens supplied with food, water and electricity…and preventing an ongoing genocide effort (Russia proved that after their occupation of eastern Ukraine in general and places like Bucha in particular).

   The dead are dead and very patient. It’s the living that care and have urgent needs.

6. “we will keep [paying tribute](https://x.com/GeneralStaffUA/status/1845762478216486918) and running [museums](https://www.karpaty.info/en/uk/lv/lw/lviv/museums/shukhevych/) for [nazi collaborators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Shukhevych) because Russia and Poland” is fascinating foreign policy of a country that wants to integrate with the West. I just really do not think this is going to end up as some people would like it to be. Not to mention how dangerous it gets when violent nationalism takes over internal discourse and becomes a default, mainstream view.
   At some point war will end and Ukraine will have to figure out what is the next step. It would be better to not fall into this trap.

7. Completely unreasonable demand at the moment, shame on those even suggesting it while Ukraine is being invaded by Russia.

   Ukraine has to use their resources to keep their citizens alive, they can’t prioritize the dead.

   Discuss that in peace times.

8. As Ukrainian, I am 100% for it and IDK why it is not yet done.

   To be fair, seeing some comments about “friends with nazis” gives me some clue.

9. >Sikorski said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had in July “missed an opportunity” to meet reparations demands presented by Tusk as an alternative to the previous Polish rightwing Law and Justice (PiS) government’s €1.3tn claim for damages and crimes committed by Nazi Germany.

   Ah damn, Olaf missed it.

10. Looking at the comments… I don’t even want to start a discussion here.

11. Ukraine allowed Germans to exhume literal nazis from their country and even assisted in doing that, yet they wont let Poles exhume our people. I think that’s kind of fucked up personally. and many of the crimminals responsible for genocide still have statues in ukraine.

    We want to forget and be friends, but i dont understand why ukrainian government wont let us close the wound.

12. Eventhough the title is phrased in a way that makes Poland sound unreasonable, I don’t think it is at all. Poland has heavily supported Ukraine throughout the invasion and all it wants is for the process of repatriation of genocide victims to start, something that has been due for decades now.

    This is not about Ukraine wasting ressources needed for the war effort, just transporting a few bodies each month would probably already be enough for the Poles as a symbolic gesture to prove it is taking their grievances seriously. It is about showing a principled effort that Ukraine is willing to right a wrong that has been ignored for way too long.

13. This must be fixed before Ukraine joins EU. Poland will never allow it before. It was our condition for decades, and nothing changed. You can cry about it and throw all kind of tantrums, it is immutable.

14. We need Ukraine to help close and heal this wound.
    The anxiety about people like Bandera loosing their hero status or something is ridiculous. Our people and any people for that matter who fell victim to genocide deserve a proper burial it’s common sense.

15. Note: the exhumation was stopped in 2017 by the Ukrainian side until Poland renovates 15 destroyed memorials to the Ukrainians who died during WW2 (they were recently destroyed by Polish activists).

    Furthermore, in 2015 Poland has exhumed the remains of UPA soldiers on Monastyr mountain without the Ukrainian consent and has destroyed a table with the names of the dead. (Source: [https://risu.ua/en/poland-admits-exhumation-of-remains-of-upa-soldiers-on-monastyr-mount—drobovych_n114162](https://risu.ua/en/poland-admits-exhumation-of-remains-of-upa-soldiers-on-monastyr-mount—drobovych_n114162) ).

    There was even an agreement in 2020 by Polish and Ukrainian governments to resume the exhumation in exchange of the restoration of the Monastyr monument (including the table). The Polish authorities restored the monument, but they refused to put the names back and removed the description that “They died for a free Ukraine”. (Source in Ukrainian: [https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2020/10/12/158256/](https://www.istpravda.com.ua/articles/2020/10/12/158256/) ). That even angered Duda himself, but nothing has changed ever since. Meanwhile Ukraine has restored the Polish burials in Lviv and continues to maintain them.

    But muh, only Ukraine is bad and nazi, while Poland is perfect and it doesn’t try to blackmail the Ukrainian side and turn it to a political issue.

16. Given how little average Ukrainians care about the issue, I don’t really understand why their political elites are so obsessed with preventing the exhumations. Maybe it’s some post-Soviet fixation on saving face?

17. ITT: As usual, the only party that’s making this whole process is ukraine, it stopped exhumations for absolutely no reason, unprompted, because it’s afraid of results ( underscore the preferred reasoning ). Also ukraine doesn’t want to do this because UPA, Bandera, Volhynian Massacare ( underscore preferred reasoning ).

    Gosh damn, i’m so goddamn enlightened for this. We should honestly just stop weapon shipments to them because they don’t fall in line how we want them regarding a period of hositilities between them 80 years in the past. Our actions are just and moral, theirs is corrupt and nationalistic.

    This bothsided antagonizm fueled by blind nationalism will surely lead to resolution.

18. My view on our eastern ally is souring, if all it takes to get the polish people to turn on a nation that is fighting the enemy in place of itself is to mention the second world war then I believe we put too much stock in the polish.

    Be it constant demands for financial reparations to demanding a nation that’s existence is on the line to exhume bodies and not having the same decency to just ask they do it after the wars conclusion.

    It has grown beyond pathetic and has begun to ring hollow to everyone else who sees it for what it is.

    Should we abandon our treaty of 1946? I’m quite sure that would be an acceptable to the public. 73 million sterling adjusted for inflation is about £3,831,516,585.36. Now I don’t know about you but I think we should devolve to petty bastard behaviour and make demands that are motivated by greed and nationalist sentiment.

    Had this been asked as an assurance that after the wars conclusion I would see no issue but it has become a rather unhumorous charade of Poland lately.

    It is good to see our resident poles can fall for this charade, what next hmm? Shall the condition of aid be tied per corpse brought to Poland?

19. Ukraine agreed on it since 2019, for that Poland has also to restore Ukrainian graveyards in Poland.

20. No matter what Ukraine will decide on this matter it will be in favor of Putin and his denazification campaign.

    May as well exhume and give relatives of victims some closure + show some good will to poles.

21. Is this the point we can finally agree that Ukraine does have a Nazi problem? Which is entirely seperate from their right to self defense.

22. Polish people were okay with slaving Ukrainians, but then something happened…

23. > even amid Russia’s invasion

    I can already tell what this article is going to be about and it’s conclusions.

    It’s reasonable to demand this, and it’s also understandable why Ukraine would want to avoid doing so during a time of war. Most people from Ukraine I’ve spoken to have little knowledge of the scale and brutality of what happened. This could put some of their heroes in a negative light, and in times of war, maintaining morale is crucial.

    The real problem, at least for me, is how the Ukrainian elites decided to go about things. I remember even back in 2022, when Poland and Ukraine were ‘BFFs,’ there was no sign of respect or compromise, even when minor problems arose. Rail issues, truckers, Ukrainian rouge rockets etc.

    #

24. Typical Polish attitude: scream and shout when something that they perceive as being wrong is being done to them, but when it’s the Polish that were doing something morally horrendous (often times in the same period even) then it’s perfectly fine and excused. Ridiculous.

25. Unpopular opinion: Poland needs to leave some of its history to being history. They really need to let go of some of the WW2 stuff. I have lived here for a decade and I feel like this country looks far too much to the past, and not enough towards to the future, and it stifles social progress.

26. No-one is denying anyone the ability to exhume already found remains. This rabid Polish electorate propaganda bullshit has been dragged out long enough.

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