The remains of Col. Yevhen Konovalets, an officer of the Ukrainian People’s Republic Army and the first head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), were reburied at Ukraine’s National Military Memorial Cemetery on Tuesday, Aug. 18, with President Volodymyr Zelensky attending the ceremony, Ukrinform reported.
“Today we are all participants in an event of national significance, when Ukraine once again restores the highest historical justice, justice for itself. We are bringing home an outstanding son of the Ukrainian people. This is an exemplary warrior and a significant statesman of Ukraine, Col. Yevhen Konovalets,” Zelensky said.
Zelensky calls Konovalets’ fate heroic and tragic
Zelensky said Konovalets’s fate was heroic and at the same time tragic, like a symbol of that entire period of Ukrainian history.
“All his conscious life he fought for Ukraine to be restored and to acquire real independent strength,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram. “Unfortunately, Ukraine could not establish itself at that time. There was a lack of unity, a lack of wisdom among the political leaders of the time, a lack of ability to build real ties with the world.”
“But Ukraine’s time has come. Independence was restored, and we defended Ukraine’s right to be itself,” he said. “No one will ever remove the blue-and-yellow flags from Kyiv, and only Ukraine will choose its national path.”
Zelensky said the memory of Ukraine’s liberation struggle serves as a guide for the present.
“Now, remembering the Ukrainian liberation struggle, we all know absolutely, precisely which mistakes must not be repeated. We know what Ukraine needs and where to focus our attention and efforts. We know what national benchmarks our state must have,” he said.
‘We will return all our heroes’
Zelensky said Ukraine would return all of its heroes buried abroad.
“Today there are still many names of those who fought for Ukraine, who inspired and created for Ukraine and, unfortunately, do not rest in Ukraine. We will do everything to step by step return every one of the true Ukrainian heroes to their native land,” he said.
“This is a noble, truly noble goal and our duty to them and to all those with whom they fought shoulder to shoulder so that Ukraine could be itself.”
The president also thanked all those who had long cared for the memory of Ukrainian heroes, including the Ukrainian Riflemen’s Community of Canada, the Ukrainian National Association, and Ukrainian patriots who preserved the memory of Konovalets and his burial site for decades.
Remains to move to national pantheon
The remains of the first OUN leader were buried temporarily at the National Military Memorial Cemetery. They are later planned to be reburied at the Ukrainian National Pantheon.
The Cabinet of Ministers approved the decision to rebury Konovalets’ remains in Ukraine in July.
His remains were exhumed at Rotterdam’s Crooswijk cemetery on Aug. 11 and delivered to Ukraine on Aug. 13, where they were met with full state and military honors.
The monument from Konovalets’s grave was also brought from Rotterdam to Lviv region, where it will be kept at the colonel’s museum estate in Zashkiv.
Part of broader reinterment effort
On May 25, a ceremony was held at the National Military Memorial Cemetery, also attended by Zelensky, to reinter the remains of OUN leader Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofia.
On July 1, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada passed a law on the Ukrainian National Pantheon, providing for the creation of a special memorial complex to honor people who made an outstanding contribution to the establishment and development of the Ukrainian state, the defense of its independence, and the development of culture, science, art, sports, the Ukrainian language, and civil society. The pantheon site is planned to be in Kyiv.