Exhumation work at Holoskiv Cemetery in Lviv has been completed, having been under way since 25 August.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
Specialists searched for, examined and prepared for reburial the remains of soldiers of the Polish Army who were killed during fighting in September 1939.
During the excavations, researchers found the remains of 113 Polish soldiers, 17 Wehrmacht troops, as well as scattered bones which, according to preliminary data, belong to two more people. In addition, the search team discovered numerous personal belongings, soldiers’ identity tags, medallions, elements of uniform and cartridge cases.
The research was carried out by the company “Ukrainian Memory” together with specialists from Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance, Wroclaw Medical University and experts from the company “Dolia”.
- In September 1939, fierce fighting took place on the outskirts of Lviv between Wehrmacht units and the Polish Army, the Institute of National Remembrance reported. One of the combat areas was the territory of the village of Holosko Velyke, located near Lviv. Polish Army servicemen killed in the fighting were buried in a mass grave on the grounds of the village cemetery. In 1958, the village of Holosko Velyke became part of the city of Lviv.
- Throughout 2019, search research was conducted on the territory of the former village of Holosko Velyke (within the old Holoskiv Cemetery) with the aim of locating the remains of Polish Army servicemen.
- Ukraine has fully met its obligations and issued Poland all the necessary permits to carry out the search and exhumation work previously agreed by the sides.
- Meanwhile, our country has so far received only one permit to carry out the exhumation of the remains of Ukrainians in Poland who were killed at the hands of the Home Army and Peasants’ Battalions in 1944.