President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, together with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, are currently in Lutsk, Suspilne reports.
The presidents visited the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul.
It is noted that the visit was not previously announced. Only the evening before, the Lutsk City Council announced the closure of traffic on the streets of the Old Town, where the church is located.
The reason given was the holding of events commemorating the victims of the Second World War and the 80th anniversary of the Volyn tragedy.
Epifaniy, Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Michael of Lutsk and Volyn, and His Beatitude Sviatoslav, head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, also came to the mass.
Later, the President wrote in his posting: “Together we honor all the innocent victims of Volyn! Memory unites us! Together we are stronger!”
On Friday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki honored the memory of the victims of the Volyn tragedy on the territory of the now-defunct village of Ostrówka in Ukraine’s Volyn region.
As is known, one of the most painful issues in the joint history of Poland and Ukraine currently remains the interpretation of the tragic events in Volyn during the Second World War, when units of the UPA committed mass murder of Poles, which in Poland is now regarded as genocide.
On July 7, the head of the UGCC, His Beatitude Sviatoslav, and the head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Poland, Archbishop Stanisław Gondecki, gathered in Warsaw, where they prayed for the victims of the tragedy and signed a joint statement of forgiveness and reconciliation between the two peoples.
