Ukraine approves exhumations in Huta Pieniacka

Ukrainian authorities have granted permission for the exhumation of victims in the former village of Huta Pieniacka. This decision, communicated to the Polish Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) on August 18, follows previous search efforts conducted in June where remains were located in 25 different locations.

Huta Pieniacka was a Polish village destroyed on February 28, 1944, during which over 850 Poles were killed. The IPN identified the perpetrators as members of the 4th Galician SS Police Regiment, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, and local Ukrainian militias. This marks the second such exhumation permission granted by Ukraine to the IPN this year, following work in Ostrowki and Wola Ostrowiecka.

Separately, Oleksandr Alfiorov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory (UINP), stated that historical issues between Poland and Ukraine should be handled by historians rather than politicians. He argued that discussions regarding the Volhynia massacre should be expanded to include the broader period of Polish-Ukrainian conflicts between 1939 and 1947 to ensure a scientific rather than propagandistic approach.