Kyiv Presses Poland over Search for 1944 Victims

Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar, said he had spent several months unsuccessfully seeking at least one Polish permit for Ukrainian search work. In an interview with RMF 24, he urged the Polish public not to fuel claims that Kyiv was failing to issue permits to Poland for search and exhumation work, according to European Pravda.

Bodnar said he had been seeking permission for work in the village of Laskow, where Ukrainian civilians were killed in 1944 by members of the Home Army and Peasants’ Battalions, but continued to face bureaucratic obstacles. He noted that Ukraine submitted three applications last year to Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance to search for victims in what is now Poland.

Bodnar previously expressed hope that searches in Laskow could begin this year. Oleksandr Alferov, director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, has also said searches for Ukrainian victims in Sahryn and Laskow could begin this year. Bodnar is publicly urging Poland to approve at least one permit.

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