Ukrainan, Polish presidents honor victims of Volhynia massacre

President Leonid Kuchma and his Polish counterpart Aleksander Kwasniewski attended a reconciliation ceremony in Pavlivka on 11 July to commemorate ethnic Poles murdered by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and local Ukrainians in Volhynia in 1943, Ukrainian media reported. The ceremony was preceded by a statement aimed at reconciliation that was adopted by both the Ukrainian and Polish parliaments. "The Volhynia events are still awaiting a thorough historical study," Kuchma said in his address. "We must not under any circumstances allow scientific labs to be turned into a scene of competition in mutual offenses and claims," he stressed. "I am sure that historians will have enough scientific honesty and conscience to reach agreement on the interpretation of complex and sad pages of history," he added.