Ukrainian and Polish Teams End Search at Puzhnyky Without Finding Mass Grave
Experts located a chapel foundation but plan to use LiDAR scanning to locate the site of a 1945 massacre.
By Isaac Medina ·
A joint team of Ukrainian and Polish experts concluded its latest search phase at the former village of Puzhnyky in Ternopil Oblast without uncovering a mass grave. The specialized institution Volyn Antiquities confirmed the results in a comment to Ukrinform. Instead of skeletal remains, the researchers identified the foundation of a cemetery chapel and an outbuilding.
The team also uncovered stone masonry that may be part of a road. Volyn Antiquities stated that they preliminarily believe the chapel was where the deceased received funeral services before burial. The absence of a mass grave in this specific area means the search for the victims of the 1945 attack will continue.
Puzhnyky was a community where ethnic Poles lived between the two world wars. In February 1945, the village suffered an armed attack. Archival records indicate that some villagers were killed and the settlement was burned down. The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance announced the start of these specific search operations on 4 November.
The Ukrainian side of the expedition was staffed by experts from Volyn Antiquities. The Polish contingent included specialists from the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin and representatives of the Freedom and Democracy Foundation. This collaboration aims to locate the remains of residents who were killed during the conflict.
Search efforts in the region have yielded results in previous phases. In spring 2025, exhumation work at Puzhnyky recovered the remains of 42 people. Those remains were reburied at the old village cemetery in September 2025. In late October, a Ukrainian expedition completed a separate search in the village of Łasków in Poland's Lublin Voivodeship. Early estimates from that site indicated the recovery of more than 40 sets of remains.
The next step for the Puzhnyky site involves advanced technology. The area is scheduled for examination using LiDAR, or Light Detection and Ranging, which scans the Earth's surface. This method is expected to help pinpoint the location of the mass grave. Officials are currently processing the permit required for the survey.
