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02.03.2017

The visit of the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine at the IPN, 28 February

Jarosław Szarek, the President of the Institute of National Remembrance, together with the directorship of the Institute, met with Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine. The Ukrainian delegation also included: Andrii Vitrenko, advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Andrii Deshchytsia, Ambassador of Ukraine in Poland, Vasyl Zwarycz, Minister-Counsellor at the Embassy of Ukraine and Mikolaj Jarmoluk, counsellor at the Embassy of Ukraine.

The President of the IPN stressed the fact that the 100th anniversary of Poland regaining its independence and the anniversary of the battle over the borders of the Polish state in 1920 are approaching. Both sides concurred that these events could provide a platform for further Polish-Ukrainian cooperation. The participants of the meeting agreed that joint activities ought to be undertaken in order to care for and protect monuments. One of the main objectives of future cooperation is the commemoration of and supervision over the places of memory of Ukrainians in Poland and Poles in Ukraine as well as those cemeteries in Poland, where Polish and Ukrainian soldiers lie side by side. Both the President of the Institute of National Remembrance and the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine expressed their deep regret at the recent acts of vandalism. Both sides debated over the development of a directory of places of memory, recognised by Poles and Ukrainians and the introduction of common standards of the protection of these sites.

The guests and hosts of the meeting acknowledged the value of Polish-Ukrainian cooperation in scientific and archival projects, which is reflected in joint publications and a bilingual collection of documents on the history of Poles and Ukrainians. Proof of fruitful cooperation between experts from the two countries can be found in the work of the Polish-Ukrainian Forum of Historians, established in 2015 under the auspices of the Polish and the Ukrainian Institutes of National Remembrance. A further, fourth meeting of the Forum is scheduled for March of this year in Kraków.

In connection with the approaching anniversary of the Battle of Polish-Ukrainian soldiers with the Bolsheviks in 1920, the participants of the meeting  discussed joint plans of publishing a work on the cooperation of Józef Piłsudski with Semen Petlura. The Polish side mentioned the possibility of preparing a popular scientific biography  of Semen Petlura, intended for a wide audience, which was warmly welcomed by the Ukrainian guests


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