On Friday, August 14, Kyiv held a farewell ceremony for Yevhen Konovalets, founder of the Ukrainian Military Organization and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and commander of the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen during the 1917–1921 War of Independence. The ceremony took place at the UGCC Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ on the first night after the colonel’s remains returned to Ukraine, UNN reports, citing the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 1st "Azov" Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine.
Details
Military personnel from units belonging to the Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 1st "Azov" Corps of the National Guard of Ukraine took part in the ceremony. Konovalets’s coffin was brought to the UGCC Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in an original Austin armored car from the period of the 1917–1921 Ukrainian Revolution.
The armored car was restored by service members of the corps’ repair and restoration battalion - the artillery carriage was attached to the armored vehicle. This is an expression of the highest honor in Ukrainian and European military traditions.
A corridor of torches, formed by soldiers of the Third Army Corps and the Yevhen Konovalets Military School, greeted the coffin containing Konovalets’s remains.
Today is a great celebration. A celebration of the colonel’s return to the land for which he fought all his life and for which he gave his life. Here, we have met as two generations of fighters. Perhaps we are the first generation to have a real chance, a real opportunity, to break this difficult chain and bring to completion the cause of Colonel Yevhen Konovalets and the cause of all Ukrainian generations. Before the colonel’s remains, I swear to build that same long-dreamed-of, great, powerful, united Ukraine. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! Welcome back, Colonel!
Additionally
The remains of Yevhen Konovalets, founder and first head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, were returned to Ukraine 88 years after his death on May 23, 1938, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. NKVD agent Pavlo Sudoplatov, a native of Melitopol, gave him an explosive device disguised as a gift - a box of chocolates. Konovalets was killed on the spot in the explosion.
We remind you
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.