The Cabinet of Ministers has ordered that the remains of OUN founder Yevhen Konovalets be returned to Ukraine

The Ukrainian government has issued a decree ordering the reburial in Ukraine of Yevhen Konovalets, an outstanding military and political figure, a colonel in the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and the first leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. His remains are scheduled to be transferred from Rotterdam to the National Military Memorial Cemetery. 

The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a plan for organizing the event, which will be funded from the state and local budgets for 2026, as well as other sources. This will fulfill the oath taken by Ukrainian nationalists during the leader’s funeral in 1938.

OUN Chairman Bohdan Chervak stated that the ceremony could take place in the very near future. Yevhen Konovalets led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists from 1929 to 1938 until his death in Rotterdam at the hands of a Soviet intelligence agent. It is also noted that in May of this year, the remains of his comrade-in-arms and successor as OUN chairman, Andriy Melnyk, and his wife, Sofia, were returned to Ukraine, and negotiations are currently underway regarding the possible reburial of Stepan Bandera’s remains.

Source: Decree of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

As a reminder, a historic reburial of Colonel Andriy Melnyk of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, head of the OUN, and his wife, Sofia Fedak-Melnyk, took place at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy submitted Bill No. 15360, “On the Ukrainian National Pantheon,” to the Verkhovna Rada. The head of state officially announced this initiative on June 28 at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra during his traditional address on the occasion of Ukraine’s Constitution Day.