UKRAINE – POLAND: OVERCOMING THE TRAUMA OF WARS AND INTERETHNIC CONFLICTS OF THE MODERN ERA

Abstract

This publication highlights important scientific and socio-political events of 2025 related to Ukrainian-Polish dialogue in the fields of science and heritage preservation. In particular, it analyses the background and results of the round tables of Ukrainian historians (held in 2025 in Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lutsk) and the All-Ukrainian round table «Restoring the Historical Memory of Ukrainians in Transcarpathia». The importance of the «Statement by representatives of the historical community of Ukraine on the intentions of some political forces in Poland to condemn the activities of the UPA and OUN(b) at the legislative level, equating them with the totalitarian regimes of Nazism and communism», as well as the «Communiqué of the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine and the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland on the results of the activities of the Ukrainian-Polish Working Group on Dignified Burials in 2025». The participants in the discussion decided it would be appropriate to propose to their Polish partners that they resume the activities of the Ukrainian-Polish Forum of Historians, the Partnership Forum, and the Ukrainian-Polish Historical Commission of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and the Polish Academy of Sciences. It was agreed that these should become additional platforms for the development of constructive dialogue, the transfer of sensitive issues to the realm of professional discussions with Polish historian colleagues, objectivity in the assessment of events in shared history, the prevention of provocations, and countering disinformation and incitement of hostility between the Ukrainian and Polish peoples. The article asserts that shared memory and a willingness to reach understanding bring the Ukrainian and Polish peoples closer together in the name of common values based on Christian tradition, respect for human rights, good neighbourliness in Europe and opposition to Russian imperialism.