Polish soldiers killed in WW II to be exhumated in Lviv
The remains of soldiers killed in the battles for Lviv in 1939 are planned to be reburied in Mostyska.
An exhumation of Polish Army soldiers killed in 1939 is to be carried out at the old Holosko Cemetery in Lviv. The joint work of Ukrainian and Polish experts will begin on August 25 and conclude by November 1. After the research is completed, the soldiers' remains will be reburied in the city of Mostyska, reports the press service of the Lviv City Council.
The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine issued an official permit for the excavations following a request from representatives of the "Pamyat" ("Memory") society. Historians indicate that this site contains the remains of soldiers who defended the city from German forces during the battles in the area of the villages of Holosko and Briukhovychi. Local residents buried the fallen soldiers of various nationalities directly on the cemetery grounds.
"These are Polish military burials located at the old Holosko Cemetery near Kruhla and Varshavska streets," said Yevhen Boiko, the executive committee's managing director. "There is no active cemetery there now, only a cross has been erected, but according to historians, soldiers of the Polish Army who died in 1939 in the battles for Lviv are buried here."
Earlier, in 2010 and 2019, search teams discovered around 110 individual graves in the area. The practical exhumation process could resume only after bilateral historical dialogue was gradually restored. In 2024, the Memory Society proposed to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture that the work be resumed. Following Warsaw’s official request in 2025, the project moved into the practical stage.
"Stince 2024, the 'Pamyat' society has taken the initiative to resume the process of exhumation and reburial," said the organization’s head, Lubomyr Horbach. "After the assistance Poland has provided to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war, we should also take a step toward each other."
The city authorities have designated a municipal cemetery in Mostyska as the future burial site. In 2015–2016 and again in 2025, specialists had already reburied the remains of 270 Polish soldiers at the cemetery. The first stage of the reburial of soldiers who died defending Lviv took place in August 2025, following the completion of a joint four-week expedition in Zboiska.
The UOJ previously reported that Poland handed Ukraine a list of sites for the exhumation of Polish victims.
