Poland admits exhumation of remains of UPA soldiers on Monastyr Mount, - Drobovych

This is reported by Radio Svoboda (Radio Liberty).

The Polish side suggests that to restore the tombstone, soldiers of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army on Monastir Mount will need to examine the remains of people buried there. This was reported to Radio Liberty by the director of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, Anton Drobovych.

"On December 3, we heard from representatives of the IPN (Polish Institute of National Remembrance - ed.) that the names of UPA soldiers indicated on the tombstone may need to be checked and clarified. According to the Polish partners, such a check can be the study of the grave, that is, the search and exhumation of the remains," he said.

At the same time, according to the head of the UINR, his institution stands on the position that the excavation of graves under legal monuments with previously agreed inscriptions can lead to "constant revisions of previous agreements."

"Also, it is unjustified to disturb the mortal remains of people without any emergency need," Drobovych added.

He recalled that last year, even before the restoration of the memorial plaque on the monastery, Ukraine, on its own initiative, granted the Polish side two permits for search operations in Lviv. Then specialists of the Polish-Ukrainian search group found the boundaries of the mass grave of Polish soldiers on the territory of the Old Cemetery on Zboishchi. According to him, Poland would like to get new permits for the exhumation of the remains found in Lviv and for new search operations.

"We are ready to go to the meeting, but we stand on the fact that it should be a bilateral process. Search operations are not an end in themselves. Their natural result is the perpetuation of memory. Therefore, places of remembrance and burial should be protected at the state level – both in Poland and in Ukraine," he added.

According to Drobovych, the UINR demands to restore the memorial plate with the list of names of the fallen UPA soldiers on Mount Monastyr in its original form. He noted that the project of the monument was officially fixed by Polish officials, and it is under the protection of Polish legislation.

"The UINR does not insist on any innovations or adding new elements to this memorial sign, but only on compliance with the agreements already recognized by Poland," he concluded.

On December 3, the Ukrainian delegation of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) headed by Anton Drobovych met in Poland with the head of the Institute of National Remembrance of the Republic of Poland (Instytut Pamięci Narodowej), Dr. Jaroslaw Scharek, and representatives of IPN.

In 2015, unknown people smashed a granite slab with a list of 62 dead soldiers, and the cross on the monument was painted white and red. In January 2020, vandals again mutilated the memorial plaque.

The tombstone was recently restored but without a list of names of UPA soldiers who died in battles with the Soviet NKVD.