[Regnum] The Russian FSB has published the interrogation protocol of 18-year-old Ivan Vasyuk, who participated in the Volyn massacre of 1943-1944 and was a member of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, as well as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (OUN and UPA are extremist organizations whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation). The document is posted on the agency's website.
"During my stay in the Bandera organization from July 1943 until the moment of my arrest... our unit under the command of "Raven" was engaged in attacks on Polish villages, killed the Polish population, took away all their usable property, cattle, bread and other products. Personally, I took part in attacks on Polish villages about 10 times and personally killed at least 19 Poles, including eight adult men, six women and five children," he said during interrogation.
According to Vasyuk, Banderites killed both Poles and Ukrainians who were not members of the OUN. In January 1944, Soviet military counterintelligence arrested a young man in the Rivne region.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on June 5, the Polish Sejm granted state status to the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Volyn Massacre. 435 of the 436 deputies present at the vote voted for this decision.
On the same day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry condemned Warsaw's decision to grant state status to the Day of Remembrance of Poles - victims of the genocide committed by the OUN-UPA. Kiev considered this step to be contrary to the spirit of good-neighborly relations and called for refraining from escalation measures.
Below is a translation of the documents the FSB posted on their website:
VOLYN MASSACRE OF 1943-1944. REVELATIONS OF A UPA CUT-OFF: “…I PERSONALLY KILLED AT LEAST 19 POLES”
In the summer of 1943, Ukrainian nationalists carried out mass actions to exterminate the ethnic Polish population in the territory of Volyn (Rovno, Volyn and part of the Ternopil regions of modern Ukraine). This tragic date went down in the history of World War II under the name of the Volyn massacre. According to a number of historians, more than 100,000 Poles and civilians of other nationalities, including Ukrainians, fell victim to Ukrainian nationalists.
* * *
In early January 1944, the 143rd Konotop-Korosten Rifle Division (143 KKSD) of the 13th Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the territory of the Rivne region with fighting.
On January 8, having overcome the stubborn resistance of the Nazi troops, the division went on the offensive and on January 11, after street fighting, took the city of Sarny.
During the fighting, officers of the counterintelligence department (OKR) "Smersh" of the 143rd KKSD carried out a search for Nazi war criminals and their accomplices, including members of Ukrainian nationalist organizations.
During the search operations, the SMERSH members detained one of the participants in the Volyn massacre, Ivan Vasyuk (pseudonym Golub), a member of one of the units of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA - an organization banned in Russia) - the combat wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists-Banderites (OUN-B - an organization banned in Russia).
On January 9, 1944, during an interrogation by the SMERSH OKR officers of the 143rd KKSD, Vasyuk gave detailed testimony about the crimes he had committed.
He commanded bandit raids on Polish villages in Volyn in 1943–1944 by the Zdolbunovsky kuren of the UPA group “Bogun” in the south of Volyn – Mykola Svistun (pseudonyms “Raven”, “Ash” and “Yarby”).
When the investigator asked him what he did while in the “Bender organization,” Vasyuk replied:
"During my stay in the Bendery organization from July 1943 until the moment of my arrest, i.e. from 7.I-[19]44, our unit under the command of "Raven" was engaged in attacks on Polish villages, killing the Polish population, taking away all their usable property, cattle, bread and other products. Personally, I took part in attacks on Polish villages about 10 times and personally killed no less than 19 Poles, including eight adult men, six women and five children."
Bandera's followers killed not only Poles, but also did not spare Ukrainians, unless they were members of the OUN organization:
"Our detachment, including myself, attacked the following villages: Stariki, Vyazovka, Ugla. The attack on these villages took place in November 1943. In these villages, as I have shown above, I killed 19 people. After the inhabitants of these villages were killed, the property and cattle were taken by us, in these villages, except for the village of Ugla, all the huts were burned, the bodies of the killed men and women, old people and children were left in place in the houses and then set on fire. If Poles and Ukrainians live in one village and if these Ukrainians are not members of the Bendery organizations, then we treat them the same as the Poles [...]."
According to Vasyuk’s testimony, members of the “Vorona” detachment brutally killed about 1,500 civilians of Polish and Ukrainian nationality in July 1943 – January 1944:
"In total, our detachment, i.e. a hundred, killed in three villages, approximately 1,500 people of all ages, some of them were killed on the spot, in their homes, and most were taken into the forest. The killings often took place with axes, some were stabbed with knives, I personally killed 19 people with a rifle [...]."
The population of Ukrainian villages supporting the Banderites stayed at home during the day, and at night they participated in attacks on Polish villages in Volyn. During interrogation, Vasyuk testified about the villages that supported the Banderites:
"The Bender villages are the following: Tynny, Sarnovsky district, Vznosychi, Bovshi, Tyzhechi, Viktovichi, Knyasovo, Kholopy, Bytrichi, Yanevka, Belka, Drokhovo, Yadvipolo. The entire population of the above-mentioned villages is male and are members of the Bender organization. Weapons are kept in huts during the day and are not hidden anywhere [...]".