The remains of Yevhen Konovalets, the founder and first head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, have been returned to Ukraine 88 years after his death. This was reported by UNN.
Details
As reported by Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Vereshchuk, they were received with state and military honors.
The farewell ceremony for the prominent Ukrainian will take place at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the UGCC in Kyiv, after which the remains will be temporarily reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery. At the same time, it will not become the final eternal resting place for one of the leaders of the Ukrainian liberation movement. In the future, Konovalets’s remains are planned to be transferred to the Pantheon of National Heroes. This will take place immediately after its creation.
Before the farewell ceremony, the colonel’s remains underwent a comprehensive examination using modern methods. According to Vereshchuk, specialists, historians, and anthropologists were involved in the work. Even computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging were used.
Exhumation in Rotterdam
The exhumation of Yevhen Konovalets’s remains was carried out on August 11 at the “Crooswijk” Cemetery in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
A memorial service was held at the burial site, led by Bishop Ihor Rantsi of the Paris Eparchy of St. Volodymyr the Great of the UGCC, in a joint service with Ukrainian priests in the Netherlands.
The ceremony was also attended by Oleksandr Alfiorov, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.
It was decided to preserve the gravestone, cross, and other elements of Konovalets’s grave in the Netherlands. They were transported to the colonel’s native village of Zashkiv in Lviv region, where his museum-estate is located.
The return of Konovalets’s remains was organized with the participation of the Office of the President, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory. Before this, the Ukrainian side obtained the necessary permits from the Rotterdam authorities for the exhumation and transportation of the remains.
Who was Yevhen Konovalets
Yevhen Konovalets was a colonel in the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, commander of the Sich Riflemen, one of the founders of the Ukrainian Military Organization, and founder of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
After the OUN was established in 1929, Konovalets became its first head and led the organization until his death.
On May 23, 1938, Konovalets was killed in Rotterdam as a result of a special operation by the Soviet secret services, carried out on the personal orders of Joseph Stalin. An NKVD agent, Pavlo Sudoplatov, a native of Melitopol, gave him an explosive device disguised as a gift—a box of chocolates. Konovalets died at the scene of the explosion.
On May 28, 1938, he was buried at the “Crooswijk” Cemetery. After the funeral, Konovalets’s comrades announced their intention to transfer his remains to Ukrainian soil in the future, after the restoration of an independent state.
The colonel’s body was returned to his homeland 88 years after his death.
Context
The return of Yevhen Konovalets’s remains is part of the process of reburial in Ukraine of prominent figures of the Ukrainian liberation movement who died or were killed abroad.
In May 2026, the remains of another OUN leader and colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, Andrii Melnyk, and his wife, Sofiia Fedak-Melnyk, were returned to Ukraine. On May 24, they were reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
In the future, the Ukrainian side is also considering the possibility of returning the remains of Yevhen Konovalets’s wife, Olha, and their son, Yurii, who are buried in Rome.
Reminder
Earlier, we reported that the Government ordered the reburial of the remains of Colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and first head of the OUN Yevhen Konovalets at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.