Poland to build memorial to Volhynia massacre victims

Poland will build a Wall of Remembrance in Warsaw for civilian victims of wartime killings by Ukrainian nationalists, Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced on Saturday.

Tusk said the memorial would include an eternal flame and the names of every victim who has been found and identified. He described the killings as a “genocide” by “Ukrainian nationalists” in World War II.

His announcement came on the eve of the anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in 1943, when units from the Ukrainian Insurgent Army and the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists killed thousands of Poles in Volhynia, now in northwest Ukraine.

Poland says between 70,000 and 100,000 civilians were killed between 1943 and 1945. Reprisals are thought to have killed up to 12,000 Ukrainians.

The dispute has long strained relations between Warsaw and Kyiv and has taken on added significance as Poland supports Ukraine against Russia's invasion.

Tusk, a strong supporter of Ukraine, said “memory and truth” should help build a better future without hatred or contempt.

At a ceremony in Olyka, northwest Ukraine, Polish Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said Warsaw and Kyiv needed to move forward together by accepting responsibility for the past.

In Warsaw, Ukraine's ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, laid a wreath in memory of all victims of World War II, Polish and Ukrainian, and called for reconciliation that he said was essential to confronting the Russian threat.

Ceremonies were also held in Chelm, a southeastern Polish border town and key rail link to Kyiv, at the site of a planned museum for those who died at Volhynia.