Ukrainian ambassador urges Poland to issue at least one permit for Ukrainian search and exhumation work

Ukrainian Ambassador to Poland Vasyl Bodnar has said he has been trying for several months to secure at least one permit for Ukrainian search work on Polish territory, but without success so far.

Source: European Pravda citing RMF 24, a Polish digital news portal and online radio station

Details: During a radio interview, Bodnar urged people not to inflame public opinion in Poland with claims that Ukraine is not issuing permits to the Polish side for search and exhumation work.

Quote: "Ukraine is issuing permits systematically, one by one, in response to requests from the Polish side. That is precisely why the working group exists... I would like to appeal here to the Polish side to issue at least one permit for search work in Poland."

More details: Bodnar said he has been trying for several months to obtain such a permit for work in Łasków.

Quote: "But no, we are not receiving it. There are always some bureaucratic restrictions. So I am publicly asking the Polish side to prepare and issue at least one permit."

Background:

• In July, Bodnar expressed hope that searches could begin in August for the remains of Ukrainians killed in 1944 in the village of Łasków by the Armia Krajowa (Home Army) and Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasant Battalions). [Armia Krajowa was the largest underground resistance force in Europe during the Second World War, while Bataliony Chłopskie was a major Polish peasant-based resistance and guerrilla organisation. Both fought against Nazi Germany's occupation of Poland. However, units of Bataliony Chłopskie, alongside Armia Krajowa, also took part in retaliatory and pacification raids against ethnic Ukrainian villages and auxiliary police in south-eastern Poland, causing significant civilian casualties.]
• Bodnar pointed out that last year the Ukrainian side had submitted three applications to Poland's Institute of National Remembrance concerning searches for Ukrainian civilians killed on the territory of present-day Poland.
• Oleksandr Alforov, Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, also expressed hope that searches for Ukrainian victims in Sahryń and Łasków will begin this year.

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