Search work has been completed in the village of Laskiv in Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship, during which specialists discovered mass and individual graves.
This was reported by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the remains of more than 40 people are located in the surveyed area, including women, children and men.
On the final day of work, expedition members carried out test-pitting and partially opened one of the mass graves, where they found the remains of eight individuals. At the end of the expedition, researchers lit memorial candles to honour the dead.
Specialists plan to conduct exhumation work in spring 2027 in order to determine more precisely the age, sex and causes of death of those buried.
The search work ran from 2 to 16 October at the request of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, and the Polish side granted the relevant permit on 31 August this year. The work was carried out by the municipal enterprise “Dolia”.
According to historical records, the mass killing of Ukrainians in Laskiv took place on 10 March 1944. Ukrainian and Polish historians have established the names of 327 villagers who died that year, although some researchers estimate the number of victims at around 350. Experts will determine the final death toll during further research.
- Ukraine’s ambassador to Poland, Vasyl Bodnar complained to journalists in August this year that the Ukrainian side has been unable for several months to obtain even a single permit from Warsaw to carry out search work.
- Last year, Ukrainian researchers carried out excavations in the village of Yurechkova in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. Specialists were then trying to find the presumed grave of members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army who were killed in March 1947 in a battle with Polish military units. During those excavations, researchers dug 19 search trenches, but did not find any burials or traces of a grave.