- February 13, 2026
- 8:51 pm
- World News
The appointment of Oleksandr Alfiorov as the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory signaled a shift from academic discussions to practical politics. Historian, officer, public intellectual, a person of the frontline generation β he joined the structure at a time when historical issues directly affect diplomacy, security, and international alliances.
The conversation about the past in the region has long ceased to be just a conversation about the past.
What the new role of the Institute means
In recent months, the agency has received expanded powers and the budget of a central government body. This changes the scale of tasks. It is not only about continuing decommunization or derussification, but also about developing a state line in dialogues with neighbors, primarily with Poland.
The institute’s staff today includes dozens of specialists, some of whom are on military service. An infrastructure is being formed that should be responsible for archives, legal decisions, and international cooperation.
Alfiorov emphasizes: Ukraine has for the first time gained the opportunity not just to implement previously made decisions, but to form a memory strategy.
Why the memorial theme remains painful
One of the most acute issues is the national military cemetery. Court decisions, land disputes, environmental standards, local interests. Each plot turns into a political conflict.
At the same time, according to the head of the institute, without such a place it is impossible to build a full-fledged system of war memorialization.
Military personnel, families of the deceased, communities β everyone has their own vision. Consensus is still being sought.
Polish direction: history as politics
Warsaw considers Volyn as part of its own state narrative. For the Ukrainian side, this is a complex, but not the only fragment of the region’s multilayered history.
Alfiorov admits: it is difficult to translate the dispute exclusively into an academic plane. Emotions in societies are stronger than arguments.
Nevertheless, Kyiv has agreed to exhumation work. This, according to the Ukrainian side, should reduce the space for manipulation and Russian propaganda.
It is here that the international context becomes key. When media analyze such steps, including on platforms like NAnews β Israel News | Nikk.Agency, attention is paid to the balance: a humanitarian gesture without renouncing one’s own subjectivity.
Is a common language possible
Ukrainian and Polish historians are preparing new conferences, archival projects, publications. The attempt is to look at a thousand years of coexistence beyond current political cycles.
But no one dares to expect quick results.
Israeli dimension and accusations of anti-Semitism
Moscow has been promoting the thesis of “innate” Ukrainian anti-Semitism for decades. Alfiorov responds to this by listing facts: the participation of Ukrainians in saving Jews, the activities of religious leaders, the existence of Jewish institutions during the period of Ukrainian statehood in the early 20th century.
The opening of a memorial to the victims of the Holodomor in Jerusalem, in his opinion, became an important symbolic step forward.
Dialogue with Yad Vashem continues, and the Ukrainian side hopes for the expansion of research programs and recognitions.
Main thesis: what the war is about
In assessing the current phase of the conflict, Alfiorov speaks harshly. According to him, Moscow’s actions fit the signs of genocidal policy: strikes on infrastructure, deportations, attempts to change the identity of displaced children.
Economic motives, he believes, are secondary.
The key goals are control over history and the generations that will live on this territory in the future.
This formula, as analysts note, is increasingly appearing in diplomatic discussions. It explains why the struggle for archives, street names, and textbooks is perceived today as part of the front.
The end of this story is still open. But one thing is clear: memory has become a resource no less significant than land or energy.
