Andrzej Duda and Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the victims of the Volhynia massacre in Lutsk

The presidents of Ukraine and Poland took part in an ecumenical service at the Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Lutsk, concelebrated by the chairman of the Polish Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Stanislav Gadecki. After the prayer, the leaders placed candles in front of the altar.

The same entry appeared (in Polish and Ukrainian) on the Telegram of Volodymyr Zelensky.

When Duda left the cathedral in Lutsk, the people gathered in front of it chanted “thank you.”

https://twitter.com/AndrzejDuda/status/1677968729303334914

80 years since the Volyn massacre

On Tuesday will be the 80th anniversary of the so-called “Bloody Sunday”, i.e. the culminating moment of the Volhynia massacre – the mass extermination of Poles living in the eastern territories of the then Republic of Poland, then occupied by the German Third Reich.

The murders were carried out by members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists – B (Bandera faction), the Ukrainian Insurgent Army subordinated to it, and the Ukrainian population encouraged by them, who were neighbors of the Poles, often related to them by blood ties.

UPA troops attacked about 150 Polish towns. It was Sunday, so people gathered in churches for mass. The murders took place in Catholic temples, e.g. in Poryck (today in Ukrainian Pawliwka) and Kisielin. About 50 churches in Volhynia were burned and demolished.

Crimes against Poles were committed in 1865 places in Volhynia. The largest massacres took place in Wola Ostrowiecka, where 628 Poles were murdered, in the Gaj colony – 600, in Ostrówki - 521, and Kołodno - 516. Crimes were committed with incredible cruelty: people were burned alive, thrown into wells, axes and pitchforks were used, victims were tortured.

Many of the remains have not yet been found

According to the estimates of Polish historians, 40-60 thousand Poles died in Volhynia, 20-40 thousand in Eastern Galicia, at least four thousand in today's Poland.

The remains of many of them rest to this day in undetermined locations, outside necropolises.

The terror of the UPA caused hundreds of thousands of Poles to leave their homes, fleeing to central Poland. The Volhynian massacre caused a Polish retaliation, as a result of which about 10-12 thousand Ukrainians, including 3-5 thousand in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.