This conference is not the first attempt by Ukrainian and Polish scholars to understand the common tragic heritage of their countries and determine prospects for overcoming it in the name of a better common future. However, this one is organised under the special conditions of the war initiated by the Russian Federation against Ukraine, which forces Ukrainians and Poles to seek a real way to overcome the stereotypes of the past. The author analyses a number of documents and studies, refers to his own experience and expresses a number of judgements about the need to overcome obstacles to a further raprochement of the Polish and Ukrainian people based on satisfactory inter-state relations in the context of European integration processes.