Media: Poland seeks to begin EU integration talks with Ukraine

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that Kyiv agreed to allow the exhumation of ethnic Poles who were killed in World War II massacres.

This is paving the way for resolving a long-standing dispute between the two countries, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

This breakthrough regarding the 80-year-old massacres, which occurred in areas now part of Ukraine, came during a meeting between Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski and his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in Warsaw.

This resolution could help resolve an issue that has become a potential obstacle for Kyiv's goal of rapid European Union accession. Sikorski linked progress on the matter to EU membership, a stance that has sparked anger from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Poland, which will hold the EU's rotating presidency in the first half of next year, is eager to accelerate the initial phase of talks.

"Ukraine won’t block the exhumation of the victims of the Volhynia massacre," Tusk stated in a post on X social media. "Our ministers are starting to work on the details." 

The 1943 massacres in the Volhynia region, carried out by Ukrainian nationalists, led to the deaths of an estimated 100,000 people, including women and children. While Kyiv acknowledges the atrocities, it has urged Warsaw not to politicize the issue and to seek a peaceful resolution. 

“We are working now to put together practical mechanisms to conduct search and exhumation works,” Sybiha told reporters. “We’ve received assurances from our Polish colleagues that Ukrainian memorials in Poland will receive due attention.”

By Naila Huseynova