Zelenskyy Attends Reburial of Ukrainian Nationalist Leader Killed by Soviet Agents

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in a reburial ceremony on Tuesday for Colonel Yevhen Konovalets, a founding leader of the Ukrainian nationalist movement. The ceremony was held at the National Military Memorial Cemetery near Kyiv, where Konovalets' remains were interred after being brought from the Netherlands.

Konovalets, who founded and led the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) in 1929, dedicated his life to the goal of an independent Ukrainian state. He spent much of his later years in exile, as Soviet authorities actively suppressed Ukrainian nationalist organizations abroad. In 1938, he was killed in Rotterdam in an operation carried out by Soviet intelligence.

Speaking at the ceremony, Zelenskyy said that with Konovalets, "Ukraine has regained a part of itself – its memory, Ukrainian experience, our national history." He described Konovalets' fate as "heroic and tragic at the same time," calling it a symbol of that entire period of Ukrainian history.

The president also used the occasion to address Russia's ongoing full-scale war against Ukraine, now in its fifth year. He said Russia is again betting on the hardships of winter, but vowed that Ukraine would respond with its long-range capabilities and ultimately win the peace it needs. "Peace for Ukraine – a Ukraine that will never again be part of another state and will never forget its heroes," he said.

The reburial comes 88 years after Konovalets' death, marking a symbolic return of a figure who remains significant to Ukraine's national identity.