Ukrainian expedition finds about 30 remains of WWII-era victims at Orthodox cemetery in Polish village of Laskiv
A Ukrainian search expedition commissioned by the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has discovered approximately 30 sets of human remains in individual and group graves at the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Laskiv, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. The remains are identified as Ukrainians killed in an attack by units of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and the Peasant Battalions (Bataliony Chłopskie) in March 1944. The expedition is the second Ukrainian-led search on Polish territory after a long pause and is being conducted within the framework of Ukrainian-Polish agreements on dignified burials.
Key points
- About 30 sets of human remains were found at the Orthodox cemetery in Laskiv, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland
- The remains are of Ukrainians killed in an attack by Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie units in March 1944
- Both individual and group burials were discovered at the site
- The search is being conducted on the order of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance by communal enterprise "Dolya," which received the Polish permit on 31 August 2026
- The UINP announced the discovery on 14 October 2026; field work at burial sites in Laskiv began on 6 October
- Historical data put the number killed in the 10 March 1944 mass killing at over 300; Ukrainian and Polish researchers have documented 327 victims, with some historians citing around 350
- The expedition is the second Ukrainian search on Polish territory after a long break, following the 2025 Yurechkova expedition
Why it matters
The discovery is the recovery of remains of victims of a World War II-era mass killing of Ukrainians in Poland, an episode that sits at the centre of contested Polish-Ukrainian historical memory. It is the second Ukrainian-led search expedition on Polish soil after a long pause, carried out under 2020 and 2022 bilateral agreements and within the framework of the Ukrainian-Polish working group on dignified burials, signalling a renewed phase of cooperation after earlier frictions over the destruction of Ukrainian memorials in Poland. Historians disagree on the toll — over 300 by general accounts, 327 according to joint Ukrainian-Polish research, and roughly 350 according to some historians — and the new fieldwork is expected to feed into that reckoning. UINP head Oleksandr Alfyorov framed the work as a step toward reconciliation that honours all the dead regardless of origin, an explicit diplomatic framing. Upcoming exhumation and reburial will give the bilateral process a concrete, visible deliverable.
What happened
A Ukrainian search expedition discovered approximately 30 sets of human remains at the Orthodox cemetery in the village of Laskiv, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. The site contained both individual and group burials. According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, the remains are of Ukrainians killed in an attack by units of the Home Army (Armia Krajowa) and the Peasant Battalions (Bataliony Chłopskie) in March 1944. The search is being carried out on the order of the UINP by the communal enterprise "Dolya," led by Sviatoslav Sheremeta, which received the relevant permit from the Polish side on 31 August 2026. Field work at World War II burial sites in Laskiv, in the gmina of Mircze, Hrubieszów County, began on 6 October, and the UINP announced the discovery on 14 October. According to various historical data, more than 300 people died in the 10 March 1944 mass killing of Ukrainians in Laskiv; Ukrainian and Polish researchers have documented 327 residents who died in 1944, and some historians cite a higher figure of around 350. The expedition is the second Ukrainian search on Polish territory after a long break, following the 2025 Yurechkova expedition. The work is being conducted under agreements reached by the Ukrainian-Polish working group on dignified burials; the previous search expeditions that recovered human remains took place in 2016.
Background
Poland formally recognised the Volhynia tragedy as genocide in 2016. Ukraine previously imposed a moratorium on exhumations of Polish burials in response to the destruction of Ukrainian memorials in Poland. Ukraine and Poland concluded historical-memory cooperation agreements in 2020 and 2022; in 2023 Ukraine allowed joint research at Puzhnyky, but a Ukrainian request to restore a memorial plaque on the grave of UPA soldiers on Monastyry hill remained unresolved. In January 2025 Ukraine for the first time allowed the exhumation of Polish victims of the Volhynia tragedy, and in May 2025 the exhumation of 1945 victims was completed in Ternopil region, which Poland described as a breakthrough. The Laskiv expedition follows this trajectory of resumed bilateral search work on Polish territory.