Poland starts long-sought exhumation of WW2 victims in Ukraine

WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland has begun exhuming the remains of Poles killed by Ukrainian nationalists during World War Two in the former Polish village of Puzniki, after long-standing demands from Warsaw over the issue, which has caused friction between the close allies.

A succession of Polish governments has demanded access to the sites in western Ukraine once part of Poland and where Polish officials say more than 100,000 people were killed.

Donald Tusk's pro-EU government was given a green light by Kyiv to carry out search and exhumation of the remains of Polish victims in November last year.

The National Remembrance Institute, whose head is running against a Tusk-backed candidate in a presidential election in May, welcomed the move.

"This is definitely a positive signal that the Ukrainian authorities have granted the first permission for this type of work," institute spokesperson Rafal Leskiewicz told Reuters.

Ukraine has rejected Poland's description of what are known as the Volhynia killings as 'genocide', saying that thousands of Ukrainians were also killed in events that were part of a wider conflict between the two nations.

The killings, which took place between 1943 and 1945, have been a sore point in relations in recent years even as Poland has strongly backed Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion, taking in almost a million refugees and supplying weapons.

The work at the Puzniki site is aimed at exhuming the remains of the victims, identifying them and burying them, the Polish Ministry of Culture said.

A group of around 20 specialists will be working on the site, and around 50 scientists will conduct genetic research.

Poland's deputy prime minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz called on Ukraine to allow further such work.

(Reporting by Barbara Erling, Pawel Florkiewicz, Alan Charlish; editing by Philippa Fletcher)