2026年8月3日 / 美国东部时间上午10:33 / 哥伦比亚广播公司/法新社
在乌克兰西部两座如今已荒弃的村庄下方——这里曾是二战大屠杀的发生地——考古学家正在挖掘出土争端核心的遗骸，这场争端多年来一直困扰着华沙与基辅的双边关系。
关于事件经过和责任人的分歧，长期以来给这对本已十分亲密的邻国关系蒙上了阴影。
据波兰方面的伤亡估算，1943年至1945年间，在纳粹德国占领的领土上，乌克兰起义军（UPA）杀害了数万名平民。
华沙称这是针对波兰少数族裔的“种族灭绝”，而乌克兰则将乌克兰起义军誉为自由斗士，将该事件视为战时“悲剧”，并表示乌克兰平民也在报复行动中丧生。
具体的遇难人数仍存在争议，但波兰国家纪念研究所（IPN）估算，1943年至1945年间，在沃伦、东加利西亚和卢布林地区发生的反波兰运动中，约有10万人遇难。该机构同时估算，至少有1万名平民在波兰的报复性袭击中身亡。
在向日葵田和森林中，波兰与乌克兰联合考古团队一直在小心翼翼地挖掘遇难者遗骸。
“我们想要找回他们的姓名……履行我们作为此处遇害者继承人的责任，”波兰国家纪念研究所副主席卡罗尔·波列约夫斯基说道。
该地区一系列发掘工作已出土了50多具遗骸，但目前尚未完成身份识别。
2026年7月28日，考古学家在乌克兰沃伦地区被摧毁的奥斯特里夫卡村附近的二战沃伦大屠杀发掘现场整理人类遗骸。谢尔盖·奥库涅夫/法新社 via 盖蒂图片社
墓地上方竖立的手工木制十字架，是证明这两座村庄曾经存在的少数标志之一。
两国政治领导人均认为，此次发掘工作可能是修复双边关系的第一步。今年年初，乌克兰总统弗拉基米尔·泽连斯基以乌克兰起义军命名一个军事单位，引发分歧，导致两国关系紧张。
“赤脚被驱赶到死亡之地”
在距离波兰边境约6英里的白色帐篷内，专家们细致地摆放着出土的遇难者骸骨，测量骨骼长度并仔细拼接破碎的头骨碎片。
在这片乌克兰国家象征之一的黄黑配色向日葵田中，还出土了少量其他文物——念珠、宗教徽章和鞋子。
“遗骸的摆放方式极为杂乱。大多数尸体被运到埋葬坑后直接被丢弃其中，”乌克兰纪念与搜寻中心的人类学家奥尔加·米涅伊科在发掘现场告诉法新社。
波列约夫斯基表示，遇难者很可能是“赤脚且未携带任何随身物品，被驱赶到这片死亡之地”。
2026年7月28日，考古学家在乌克兰沃伦地区被摧毁的奥斯特里夫卡村附近的二战沃伦大屠杀发掘现场处理人类遗骸。谢尔盖·奥库涅夫/法新社 via 盖蒂图片社
工作人员正在收集基因样本，波兰国家纪念研究所已向那些疑似在大屠杀中失去亲属的波兰人发出呼吁，希望他们提供自身基因样本以帮助身份匹配。
法医专家和人类学家还将对骸骨进行检测，以确定每位遇难者的大致年龄、性别和死因。
波列约夫斯基表示，目前在该遗址发现的50具遗骸中，据信有30%至40%是儿童。
外交争端
大屠杀问题一直是华沙与基辅之间反复出现的争议点。
乌克兰起义军是与乌克兰独立运动相关的准军事组织，曾与苏联红军作战。
但该组织在纳粹德国最初入侵苏联时与其合作，与波兰抵抗力量发生冲突，并杀害了波兰人、犹太人和其他平民。
自2022年俄罗斯入侵乌克兰以来，乌克兰将乌克兰起义军视为反抗苏联莫斯科统治的独立斗争力量予以表彰。基辅方面坚称，泽连斯基以该组织命名军事单位并非针对波兰。
但波兰总统卡罗尔·纳夫罗茨基因此收回了授予泽连斯基的波兰最高国家荣誉。据英国广播公司新闻报道，随后三位乌克兰前总统将自己的白鹰勋章归还波兰，以示对泽连斯基的支持。
在波兰，该问题的政治化程度进一步加深，民族主义政党在明年议会选举前试图煽动选民情绪，这是一场更广泛的煽动反乌克兰情绪运动的一部分。
波兰境内有数十万乌克兰难民——去年在分裂的总统选举期间，公众对难民的反对声浪高涨，最终右翼候选人纳夫罗茨基当选总统。
波兰仍是向乌克兰运送军事和人道主义援助的主要枢纽，总理唐纳德·图斯克领导的亲欧政府多次呼吁缓和局势。
华沙对泽连斯基为缓和紧张局势所做的努力表示欢迎，包括承诺公开机密情报文件。
就在图斯克和泽连斯基试图化解分歧之际，在波兰边境附近的乌克兰田野上，一场为已出土遗骸举行正式葬礼的计划正在推进。
“我们希望他们能安葬在这里，这片他们曾经生活过的土地，这里承载着他们每个人的梦想与计划，也是他们本该延续人生的地方，”波列约夫斯基说道。“他们理应长眠于此片土壤之下。”
据英国广播公司新闻报道，图斯克上个月宣布将为遇难者建立一座国家纪念碑。
“真相是我们对遇难者的责任，也是为了更美好的未来而摆脱痛苦过往的途径，”他说道。“记忆不能成为仇恨的奴仆。对抗民族主义的方式绝不是更多的民族主义。”
2026年7月28日，乌克兰沃伦地区被摧毁的奥斯特里夫卡村附近的二战沃伦大屠杀发掘现场的十字架。谢尔盖·奥库涅夫/法新社 via 盖蒂图片社
Human remains exhumed at site of controversial World War II massacres in Ukraine: “Each of them had their dreams”
August 3, 2026 / 10:33 AM EDT / CBS/AFP
Beneath two now-deserted villages in western Ukraine — the site of World War II-era massacres — archaeologists are uncovering the bones at the heart of a dispute that has strained relations between Warsaw and Kyiv for years.
Disagreements over what happened and who is responsible for the Volyn massacres have long cast a shadow over ties between the otherwise now close neighbors.
Between 1943 and 1945, tens of thousands of civilians were killed by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in territory occupied by Nazi Germany, according to Polish estimates of the toll.
Warsaw calls it a “genocide” against the Polish minority, while Ukraine hails the UPA as freedom fighters, sees the events as a wartime “tragedy” and says that Ukrainians were killed in retaliation.
The exact number of people killed at the time remains contested, but Poland’s Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) estimates that about 100,000 people died in the 1943-45 anti-Polish campaign in the Volhynia, Eastern Galicia and Lublin regions. The institute also estimates that at least 10,000 died in Polish attacks of retaliation.
Amid sunflower fields and forests, joint Polish-Ukrainian teams of archaeologists have been carefully excavating the remains of victims.
“We want to restore their first and last names … to fulfil the duty that rests on us as heirs of those who were murdered here,” said Karol Polejowski, deputy president of the IPN.
The remains of over 50 people have been recovered in a series of exhumations taking place in the area, but they have yet to be identified.
Archaeologists recover human remains at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images
A handmade wooden cross, planted near the graves, is one of the few signs that the villages ever existed.
Political leaders in both countries believe the exhumations can be a first step in repairing relations, which have been strained this year by a rift triggered when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy named a military unit after the UPA.
“Driven to the field of death barefoot”
In a white tent around six miles from the Polish border, experts meticulously lay out the skeletons of recovered victims, measuring bones and carefully trying to match broken skull fragments.
A small number of other artefacts — rosaries, religious medallions and shoes — have also been unearthed under the field of yellow-and-black sunflowers, one of the national symbols of Ukraine.
“The remains were arranged in a highly disordered manner. Most of the bodies had been brought to the burial pit and simply dumped into it,” Olga Mineiko, an anthropologist at the Ukrainian Memorial and Search Center, told AFP on the site.
The victims were likely “driven to the field of death barefoot and without personal belongings,” said Polejowski.
Archaeologists work with human remains at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images
The genetic material is collected, with the IPN appealing to Poles who believe they may have lost relatives in the massacre to provide their own to help find matches.
Forensic specialists and anthropologists will also examine the bones to determine the approximate age, sex and cause of death of each of them.
It is believed that 30 to 40% of the 50 remains so far discovered at the site were children, according to Polejowski.
Diplomatic spat
The massacres have been a recurring point of contention between Warsaw and Kyiv.
The UPA was a paramilitary organization tied to the Ukrainian independence movement that fought the Soviet Union’s Red Army.
But it collaborated with the Nazis when they first invaded the Soviet Union, clashed with the Polish resistance and killed Poles, Jews and other civilians.
Since Russia invaded in 2022, the UPA has been honored in Ukraine as a force that fought for independence from Moscow under the Soviet Union. Kyiv insisted Zelenskyy’s choice of name for the military unit was not directed against Warsaw.
But Polish President Karol Nawrocki withdrew Poland’s highest national honor from him in response. Three former Ukrainian presidents later returned their White Eagle awards to Poland in solidarity with Zelenskyy, BBC News reported.
In Poland, the issue has become even more politicized as nationalist parties seek to embolden their base ahead of parliamentary elections next year — part of a broader campaign to whip up anti-Ukrainian sentiment.
Poland is home to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees — with a backlash against their presence having surged during a divisive presidential election campaign last year, won by the right-wing Nawrocki.
The country is still the main hub for military and humanitarian aid deliveries to Ukraine, and Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s pro-European government has repeatedly called for a de-escalation.
Warsaw has welcomed efforts by Zelenskyy to cool the tension, including the promise of opening classified intelligence documents.
As Tusk and Zelenskyy try to bury the hatchet, in the Ukrainian fields near the Polish border, plans are underway for a proper farewell to those uncovered.
“We want them to be buried here, where they lived, where each of them had their dreams and plans, and wanted their life to unfold,” said Polejowski. “In this soil they should rest.”
Last month, Tusk announced the creation of a national memorial to the victims, BBC News reported.
“Truth is our duty toward the victims, but also a way to overcome a painful past for the sake of a better future,” he said. “Memory cannot be the servant of hatred. The answer to nationalism cannot be more nationalism.”
A cross is seen at the exhumation site of the World War II Volhynia massacre near the destroyed village of Ostrivky, Volyn region on July 28, 2026. Serhii Okunev /AFP via Getty Images