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POLISH SECURITY CHIEF IN KYIV... Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma and visiting Polish National Security Bureau head Marek Siwiec on 25 February discussed deepening their countries' strategic bilateral and multilateral partnerships, Interfax reported, quoting Kuchma spokeswoman Olena Hromnytska. She said the meeting "confirmed Kyiv's readiness to begin an active implementation of the Polish concept of an 'Eastern dimension' in EU joint foreign policy." JM

...WHERE HE DISCUSSES 1943 VOLHYNIA MASSACRE. Spokeswoman Hromnytska also said on 25 February that the two politicians agreed to prepare the joint commemoration of the 1943 Volhynia (Volyn) massacre (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 14 February 2003). Meanwhile, PAP quoted Siwiec as saying in Kyiv that "our aim is to reach a convergence of views" on the massacre. Siwiec said the Polish side wants the Ukrainian authorities, society, and elites to voice assessments on the Volhynia massacre that contain the term "genocide." Historians believe the Ukrainian Insurgent Army murdered some 75,000 Poles during an ethnic-cleansing campaign in 1943 in Nazi-occupied Volhynia. Some 35,000 Ukrainians are thought to have died as a result of retaliation by the Polish Home Army. JM