Back
Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
A Ukrainian-Polish team of specialists has completed another stage of searching for the remains of those killed during World War II on the territory of the former village of Puzhniki in the Ternopil region. A mass grave in Puzhniki was not found, but the searchers came across the foundation of a cemetery chapel. Work continued from 4 November, with seven specialists from both countries taking part. The specialists defined the boundaries of the old cemetery and plan to further apply a modern terrain-scanning method to search for a mass grave.
The team laid dozens of reconnaissance trenches in the northeast part of the old cemetery. The results of the work were reported to the Specialized Institution “Volynian Antiquities.”
“Participants of the expedition, using equipment, laid 36 reconnaissance trenches over an area of about half a hectare. We managed to determine the boundaries of the cemetery, as well as to uncover remains of three objects. preliminarily we believe that we found the foundation of a chapel where the deceased were laid out for burial, and a utilitarian building,” the institution said.
The report also notes that the searchers found a stone masonry that may be part of a road. Experts noted that Puzhniki is a challenging site for work, as it is a hilly area covered by forest and shrubs. On the Ukrainian side worked the “Volynian Antiquities” searchers, on the Polish side representatives of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin and the “Freedom and Democracy” foundation.
They will apply terrain scanning to search for the burial.
The Puzhniki territory will be additionally studied using lidar surveying—a modern method of land terrain scanning that should help in locating a mass grave. However, the clearance to conduct such scanning is still being processed. The vice president of the “Freedom and Democracy” foundation, Maciej Danszewicz, had previously told Ukrinform that search work in Puzhniki is planned to continue next year.
Exhumation of remains on the territory of the former village Puzhniki continued from 23 to 5, and 2025 year; then the remains of 42 people were found, and their DNA tests are currently being conducted in Poland. In September this year, a ceremony of reburial of the discovered remains took place in the Ternopil region with the participation of government representatives of both countries and about 40 descendants of residents of the former village.
Earlier, Informator reported that in Lviv, at the Holoskyiv cemetery, a team of Ukrainian and Polish specialists found the remains of 20 soldiers of the Polish Army who died during fighting with the Wehrmacht in September 1939. We also wrote that in Ostrivky in Volyn a joint expedition by the end of July found the remains of at least 55 victims of the tragedy of 1943 year, among whom were children.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Україна та Польща завершили етап пошукових робіт на Тернопільщині - відомо, чи знайшли масові поховання". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Informator.
