On August 25, work began at Holoskiv Cemetery in Lviv to search for and exhume the remains of Polish soldiers who died in 1939, according to the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR).
"From August 25 to October 2, 2026, research will be conducted at the old Holoskiv Cemetery in Lviv with the aim of exhuming and subsequently reburying the remains of Polish Army soldiers who died in September 1939," according to a statement posted on the UINP website on Tuesday.
It is reported that the work will be carried out by the limited liability company "Ukrainian Memory" with the participation of Polish specialists – employees of the Institute of National Remembrance of the Republic of Poland and the Medical University of Wrocław.
It is noted that the exhumation investigations are being conducted in accordance with agreements reached following the work of the Ukrainian-Polish Working Group on National Memory. As a continuation of this work, at a meeting of the State Interagency Commission on Commemorating Participants in the Anti-Terrorist Operation, victims of war, and political repression on June 4, 2026, Ukrainian Memory LLC was granted permission to conduct exhumation studies of the recovered remains.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory is engaging and funding specialists from Lviv Regional Council's municipal enterprise "Dolia" to oversee the search operations; this enterprise specializes in locating the graves of participants in the national liberation struggle and victims of wars, deportations, and political repression.
As previously reported, throughout 2019, investigations were already conducted on the territory of the former village of Holosko Velyke – specifically within the boundaries of the old Holosko Cemetery – to locate the remains of Polish Army soldiers who died in September 1939. These investigations revealed signs of burial sites.
In September 1939, fierce battles raged in the suburbs of Lviv between units of the Wehrmacht and the Polish Army. One of the battlefields was the area of the village of Holosko Velyke, located near Lviv. Polish Army soldiers who died in battle were buried in a mass grave on the grounds of the village cemetery. In 1958, the village of Holosko Velyke became part of the city of Lviv.
