Poland Makes an Application to the USA For The Extradition Of Ukrainian War Criminal Michael K.

Michael (Mychajlo) K. is suspected of ordering the ‘pacification’ of Chłaniów and Władysławin, resulting in the death of 44 inhabitants including children. He was found in the USA 70 years after the crime.

The National Prosecutor’s Office sent to the Polish Embassy in Washington DC a request from the Branch of the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) in Lublin for the arrest and extradition of a US citizen of the Ukrainian nationality, Michael K. – announced IPN. Polish diplomats will forward the request to the Americans.

The application prepared by the Main Commission was sent to Washington on 21st June 2017, but a communiqué on this was only issued on 4^th July. The now 98-year-old Michael K. is suspected of “committing crimes against humanity which is a war crime.”

For Polish version – click HERE

Michael (Mychajło) K. was a co-founder and commander of the Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion, a collaborative formation of the Third Reich consisting of Ukrainian volunteers. On 23rd July 1944, his company carried out the ‘pacification’ of Chłaniów village in the Lublin region by way of retaliation for the killing by Polish guerrillas of the German liaison officer. As a result, 44 inhabitants of Chłaniów and neighboring Władysławin, including children, were murdered. Later, the company commanded by K. took part, among others atrocities, in the ‘pacification’ of Czerniaków  district during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. The Ukrainian Self-Defense Legion was later incorporated into the well-known Ukrainian collaborative formation, the Waffen-SS division “Galizien”.

According to available information, Mychajło K. received an American visa and went to the United States in 1949. He lied to the Americans that he had not served in the army during the war. He now lives in an Ukrainian district of Minneapolis where he once worked as a carpenter. He received American citizenship and was active in local Ukrainian organisations.

The request for extradition sent in June to the United States is the result of several years of investigation launched after a British Holocaust investigator, retired pharmacologist Dr. Stephen Ankier, researched and documented Michael K’s war time activities, located him in the US and publicised his case in the media. During the IPN investigation, the main problem for Polish investigators became the issue of identification. According to IPN documents, the trail of Mychajło K. stops in January 1945 in Cracow. It was not until four years later that the man known as Michael K. arrived in the States. Comparing documents from before and after his arrival was not considered by IPN investigators as sufficient to conclude a definitive personal identification and the investigation’s progress then seemed to become frustrated.

Kresy.pl established contact and the cooperation of Dr. Stephen Ankier during 2016. Thanks to photographic materials handed over to IPN and the use by the IPN investigators of a new forensic method, ‘facial recognition and comparative imagery analysis’, it became possible to achieve a definitive and positive confirmation that the wartime commander Mychajło K was the same man as Michael K. in the United States.  IPN acknowledged that the use of photographic analysis following the joint intervention of Kresy.pl and Dr. Stephen Ankier played an “an important and vital role” in confirming the identity of Michael K.  In his opinion, it was also vital to link the pseudonym K. used during the war with the individual in the States within the procedural documentation.

PLEASE READ: Foreign media about the role of Kresy.pl in confirming the identity of the Ukrainian war criminal

On 13th March 2017, IPN officially stated that the identity of Michael K. was confirmed and the prosecutor of the Branch of the Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation of the Institute of National Remembrance in Lublin sent to the court an application for his arrest.

In February Kresy.pl were the first member of the media to report, that according to unofficial information, the use of specialised forensic techniques involving photographic analysis would most likely confirm the identity of Mykhailo / Michael K.

Read also:

Polish MP Tomasz Rzymkowski announces interpellation in Karkoć’s case: „this matter is urgent”

Polish MP submits an interpellation to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Ministry of Justice concerning alleged Ukrainian war criminal

Kresy.pl were the only medium in Poland, that has been investigating and covering the Karkoć’s Case for last several months, joining efforts with British Holocaust researcher, Dr Stephen Ankier.

Kresy.pl / IPN