Podgorye is also significant for the events of 1924, when Sich Riflemen of the Ukrainian Galician Army perished at the hands of Poles. Mikhail Bendyuk, whose family has both victims and perpetrators of these past conflicts, believes that reconciliation is possible through mutual apologies. He said, “I forgive them for burning my grandmother and grandfather alive with their children—my mother’s family, leaving her, a three-year-old, orphaned. She survived by sheer chance, being in a neighbor’s yard. And I ask forgiveness from the Poles for my uncle burning a Polish village in retaliation, killing those who refused to leave their homes. It no longer matters who started it or why. It is all cruel and unjust.”
These images serve as a testament to the resilience and efforts to remember and heal past wounds, as Ukraine rebuilds its historical narrative.
