Polish PM Tusk announces Warsaw Memory Wall with eternal flame and names of WWII victims found in Ukraine
Prime Minister Donald Tusk pledged to erect a monument in Warsaw listing every identified victim of 20th-century wars in Ukraine, on the anniversary of the Volhynia massacre's climax.
The announcement
On the anniversary of what is known as Bloody Sunday, the peak of the Volhynia massacre, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk used a video message on platform X to announce a new national monument. A so-called Memory Wall will be built in Warsaw, featuring an eternal flame and inscribed with the names of every recovered and identified victim of 20th-century wars whose remains are found in Ukraine.
The murdered cannot remain nameless, they cannot be left without a dignified burial. The memory of them is our common duty to their loved ones, to the Polish nation and state.
The announcement marks a direct government response to long-standing calls for intensified exhumation and identification efforts across the border.
Renewed identification push
Tusk stated that as prime minister he had taken effective steps to resume, after years of inaction, the search and exhumation of victims of the Volhynia crime as well as other Polish victims of 20th-century conflicts in Ukraine whose bodies had not previously received a proper burial. He framed the move as a core state obligation.
That is why, as prime minister of the Polish government, I have taken effective steps to resume, after years, the search and exhumation of victims of the Volhynia crime, as well as our other victims of 20th-century wars in Ukraine, whose bodies were not previously given a dignified burial in graves.
Volhynia and Bloody Sunday context
The prime minister described Bloody Sunday as the apogee of the Volhynia massacre, which he labeled a genocide carried out by Ukrainian nationalists against Poles and Polish citizens of other nationalities. The monument's placement in the capital and its linking to the anniversary signal a reinforced official Polish narrative on the wartime events.
Monument design and purpose
The Memory Wall is to combine a physical commemoration structure with a living flame, listing each individual by name and surname. Tusk stressed that preserving every name is a state duty, stating that the Republic of Poland will not forget any of the victims. The monument will operate as a rolling register, updated with each new identification made through ongoing exhumation work in Ukraine.
The Republic of Poland will not forget any of them.
The project ties a Warsaw-based memorial to field work in Ukraine, creating a direct link between the capital and the sites where human remains are still being recovered and identified.
