Ukrainian, Polish presidents commemorate victims of tragedy in Lviv region

Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko and Polish President Lech Kaczynski have attended the events to commemorate the victims of a tragedy, which took place 65 years ago the village Huta Peniatska, Brody district, on Saturday.

The two presidents laid flowers to the monument to the tragedy victims, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has said.

There were many great events in the history of Ukraine and Poland, Kaczynski said. "But today we are speaking about the most difficult moments and it is good that we cans speak of them now, as it is what a real friendship between the peoples is," the Polish president said, noting that this crime has broken the trust between Ukrainians and Poles for decades.

In turn, the Ukrainian president said that the two peoples have rather a complicated common past. "Today I am obliged to be hear side by side with my Polish counterpart. I want to show thus that a Ukrainian has once and forever offered a hand of friendship and understanding to a Pole," Yuschenko said.

Besides, Yuschenko and Kaczynski will commemorate the victims of Bolshevist repressions in the city of Brody.

On February 28 1944, the German police officers have conducted a punitive operation killing among others several hundreds of Poles residing at Huta Peniatska following a fight between Soviet partisans and a unit made up of Ukrainians.

Source: Kyiv Post