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July 9 () –
Polish President Andrzej Duda visited Ukraine this Sunday to commemorate with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodimir Zelenski, the 80th anniversary of the massacre of Poles at the hands of the then Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Volhynia region — now part of Ukraine. – during World War II, between the summer and autumn of 1943.
“Together we pay tribute to these innocent victims. Memories unite us. Together we are stronger,” Duda said on his Twitter account before going to the memorial held in the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles in Lutsk, the capital of the Lutsk region. Volhynia. Zelenski, in this same social network, has reproduced the same message.
Between July 11 and 12, 1943, Ukrainian ultranationalist forces launched a combined attack against more than a hundred Polish-inhabited towns in counties such as Kowel, Horochow, and Wlodzimierz Wolynski. Ukrainian partisans rampaged through the towns and committed outright atrocities — including beheadings, crucifixions and dismemberment — against the civilian population.
The Volhynian massacres left between 30,000 and 40,000 Poles dead, for a total of about 100,000 dead during the campaign of terror orchestrated by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
Currently, Poland is one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies in the war against Russia and the Polish president as well as other members of his government are regularly seen in Kiev to directly discuss the evolution of the conflict with the Ukrainian authorities.
