The Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine will cooperate in the area of national remembrance. The memorandum signed in Kyiv assumes cooperation in the spirit of mutual respect and understanding in resolving all important and sensitive issues related to the national memory of both countries.

In a document signed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage, Prof. Piotr Gliński and the Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenka, Poland and Ukraine declared their desire to develop cooperation and emphasized the importance of friendly relations and trust between the parties in preserving national memory.

According to the memorandum, firstly, a Polish-Ukrainian working group will be established to develop specific procedures for conducting and resolving all sensitive issues of national remembrance, including issues related to search, exhumation, burial, and commemoration, reconstruction and protection of memorial sites and burials. The working group will be chaired by the deputy ministers of culture of both countries, and its members will be experts and representatives of relevant state institutions.

The memorandum entered into force on the date of its signing. The practical implementation of its provisions will begin after the end of hostilities in Ukraine, but the signatories do not rule out earlier possible actions in this regard.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński