The latest approval involves a site in the former village of Zboiska, where the remains of Polish soldiers believed to have died in 1939 while defending Lwów—now Lviv in western Ukraine—are thought to be buried, the ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
“The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine informed us on June 11 that it had granted a second permit for exhumation work in Ukraine," the statement said.
"The permit concerns a request submitted by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) to carry out work in the area of the former village of Zboiska," it added.
The ministry also said that exhumation work would be "conducted by the Polish side in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities."
This marks the second such approval issued by Ukrainian authorities in recent months.
In April, Polish researchers began exhumation work in what was once the Polish village of Puźniki, now Puzhnyky in western Ukraine, uncovering the remains of at least 42 people — men, women and children — believed to have been victims of wartime atrocities.
That operation concluded on May 10, though Ukrainian archaeologists say additional graves may still be uncovered in the area, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
It cited Alina Kharlamova of the Ukrainian foundation Volyn Antiquities as saying that "further searches in Puzhnyky are expected."
A cemetery at Puzhnyky in Ukraine's western Ternopil region. Photo: PAP/Wojtek Jargiło
Officials say the renewed cooperation on historical remembrance marks a breakthrough between Warsaw and Kyiv on the sensitive issue of wartime exhumations, particularly those related to massacres of Polish civilians in the Volhynia region during World War II.
The exhumations in Puzhnyky are seen as a significant step forward in Polish-Ukrainian reconciliation over difficult shared history.
The process is being closely watched in both countries and viewed by many as a test case for how historical justice can be pursued with mutual respect.
Puzhnyky, now located in Ukraine’s western Ternopil region and formerly known as Puźniki, was the site of an attack by Ukrainian nationalists on the night of February 12–13, 1945, according to Polish historians.
Various estimates show that between 50 and 120 ethnic Poles were killed. The massacre occurred during the final months of World War II amid a wave of ethnic violence across the region.
This exhumation marked the first such operation since Ukraine lifted its 2017 ban on Polish-led searches and exhumations of wartime burial sites in the country.
The ban was officially lifted in November last year, following prolonged negotiations between Warsaw and Kyiv.
Poland's top diplomat Radosław Sikorski (right) and his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha (left) hold a joint news conference in Warsaw on November 27, 2024. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Photo: PAP/Artur Reszko
The former Polish village of Puźniki in what is now western Ukraine. Photo: Krystian Maj/KPRM
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Source: IAR, PAP