You're reading: FM Klimkin: We value our common history with Poland

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has visited the village of Pawlokoma, Poland, where a detachment of the Polish Armia Krajowa (Home Army) in 1945 shot dead 366 Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s press service said on Saturday Klimkin participated in a ceremony to commemorate the dead Ukrainians and placed flowers at a Greek Orthodox cemetery where there is a memorial to the victims.

“Each of the 366 Ukrainians who died here in Pawlokoma was a part of Ukraine and remains a part of Ukraine. We remember them and mourn their deaths,” the minister said.

More than 1,000 persons attended the memorial service.

Klimkin noted the special relationship between Ukraine and Poland in his speech.

“We were always strong, but stronger now than ever before. We value our common history, our common history with Poland. But today we owe our strength to those who died for our freedom,” Ukraine’s foreign minister said.

Klimkin thanked Marshall of the Subcarpathian Province Ewa Leniart for participating in the ceremony and for her support.

Leniart, in turn, said, “Common memory and remembrance of victims of the fratricidal conflict obliges us to build a common future.”

The monument to the killed Ukrainians in Pawlokoma was opened on May 13, 2006, in the presence of the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and his Polish counterpart Lech Kaczynski.