Adedokun Waliyu 
The presidents of Ukraine and Poland, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Andrzej Duda together, have marked the anniversary of one of World War II’s bloodiest episodes for the two countries, while visiting a church in the western Ukrainian city of Lutsk on Sunday.
“Together we pay tribute to all the innocent victims of Volhynia! Memory unites us!” the office of Polish President wrote on Twitter. “Together we are stronger.”
Television footage showed Duda and Zelenskyy, inside the church during Sunday Mass.
“Together, we honor all the innocent victims of Volhynia,” the Ukrainian president wrote both in Ukrainian and Polish on his Telegram account, adding: “Memory unites us! We are stronger together!”
The Volhynia massacre, which took place between 1943 and 1945, has been a source of tension between Poland and Ukraine.
The Volhynia massacre?
The Volhynia massacre took place between 1943 and 1945 during the Second World War. Ukrainian nationalists killed tens of thousands of Poles, in what the Polish Parliament says bore elements of genocide.
Kyiv rejects this categorization, and tensions over this episode in history have muddied the waters between the two allies.
Polish historians say Polish retaliatory operations killed up to 12,000 Ukrainians.
Earlier this year, a Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman said Zelenskyy should apologize and ask seek forgiveness for the massacre, prompting an unusually public row between the two otherwise friendly countries.
To diffuse the tension, Ukrainian parliamentary speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk told the Polish Parliament in May that Kyiv understood Warsaw’s pain over the events.
