MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/. Polish Minister of National Defense Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz traveled to the city of Olyka (Lutsk district, Volyn region) in Ukraine to participate in a memorial service for the victims of the Volhynia massacre.

He delivered a speech addressed to Ukrainians. "To the ten commandments, one can add an eleventh - July 11 of each year - do not cause pain, do not glorify those who caused pain to your friend, because friendship is the ability to tell each other the truth, even the truth that is difficult to accept. Friendship is understanding this difficult truth, it is the ability to move forward together, despite the experience of the past," the minister said in a speech broadcast by TVP Info.

Volhynia massacre

During World War II, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, recognized as extremist and banned in Russia), in cooperation with German intelligence agencies, launched a campaign against Soviet rule. In 1943, it established the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, banned in Russia). Beginning in February 1943, Ukrainian nationalists launched a campaign to eliminate the Polish population of Volhynia. The campaign reached its peak on July 11, 1943, when OUN-UPA units attacked about 100 Polish settlements. About 100,000 people, mostly women, children, and the elderly, were killed. These events became known as the Volhynia massacre. In 2016, the Polish parliament recognized the Volhynia massacre as genocide against Poles, and in 2025, July 11 was designated a national day of remembrance.