Friday, Aug 14, 2026 The claims desk. Receipts included. POWERED BY LENZ
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UPA-led nationalist forces killed roughly 100,000 Polish civilians during 1943–45.

The Claim

The Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) murdered approximately 100,000 Polish civilians during World War II.

The Short Version

The historical record broadly supports a death toll near 100,000 Polish civilians in the 1943–45 anti-Polish campaign led principally by the UPA. The figure is an estimate covering Volhynia, Eastern Galicia, and neighboring areas. Some killings involved OUN-B members, local auxiliaries, and other associated formations, so assigning every death exclusively to the UPA is too precise.

Caveats

  • The 100,000 figure is a historical estimate, not a complete count of individually verified victims.
  • The estimate generally covers the broader 1943–45 campaign across multiple regions, not Volhynia in 1943 alone.
  • Not every death can be attributed exclusively to UPA members; associated OUN-B and local formations also participated.

The Receipts

  1. Ukrainian ‘Working through the Past’ in the Context of the Polish–Ukrainian Dialogue on Volhynia-43. Asymmetry of Memory | European Review | Cambridge Core

    cambridge.org

  2. Celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Volhyn Massacre - News Institute of National Remembrance

    eng.ipn.gov.pl

  3. WOŁYŃ 1943 – ROZLICZENIE

    ipn.gov.pl

  4. Polish PM pledges memorial to victims of WW2 'genocide by Ukrainian ...

    bbc.com

  5. Ivan Katchanovski, Ph.D.

    preprints.apsanet.org

  6. Ethnic Cleansing, Genocide or Ukrainian-Polish War in Volhynia?

    doi.org

  7. Tomasz Czajka Zbrodnia wołyńska : stan wiedzy Polaków i Ukraińców

    bazhum.muzhp.pl

  8. Ludobójstwo na ludności polskiej dokonane przez ...

    cbw.wp.mil.pl

  9. Peasants into Perpetrators: The OUN-UPA and the Ethnic Cleansing of Volhynia, 1943–1944 | Slavic Review | Cambridge Core

    cambridge.org

  10. Zbrodnia Wołyńska

    zbrodniawolynska.pl

+ 40 more sources — see the full list on Lenz

Filed Under

Ukrainian Insurgent ArmyWorld War II

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