The third President Viktor Yushchenko called for the ashes of Hetman Ivan Mazepa, Pylyp Orlyk, the Supreme Otaman Symon Petliura, Pavlo Skoropadsky, Yevhen Konovalets, Stepan Bandera, and thousands of other Ukrainians who created our statehood and whose graves are scattered around the world today to be returned to Ukraine. He stated this after the reburial of OUN leader Andriy Melnyk and his wife at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Kyiv region.
Viktor Yushchenko noted that the Ukrainian Pantheon of National Glory cannot be complete "as long as our great sons remain abroad."
The reburial of Andriy Melnyk and his wife at the National Military Memorial Cemetery is the initial stage of a larger state initiative. As informed hromadske in a comment, historian and member of parliament Volodymyr Viatrovych, another reburial will take place later – on the territory of the National Pantheon of Heroes, which is to be established directly in the center of Kyiv.
According to him, it concerns several dozen prominent figures of Ukrainian history, among whom, besides Andriy Melnyk, Yevhen Konovalets was also mentioned, whose remains are to be finally moved to the future Pantheon.
Volodymyr Viatrovych noted that a “very worthy place” is currently being considered for the arrangement of the Pantheon, which will not be announced yet.
It is expected that this facility will become a place of international protocol, which will be visited by foreign delegations and where high-level state ceremonies will be held. The historian emphasized that a large number of burials of Ukrainian military, political, and cultural figures remain abroad, often disappearing due to the death of guardians or the collapse of public organizations, so the state must systematically take over this initiative.
The project implementation is currently handled by a circle of involved experts at meetings. Commenting on criticism on social media regarding the high cost and alleged inappropriateness of such steps during a full-scale war, Viatrovych, who has been working on the topic of moving remains for over 25 years, noted that such accusations are a standard way of discrediting measures aimed at strengthening Ukrainian identity.
At the end of March, specifically on March 28, Head of the Office of the President Kyrylo Budanov instructed to develop ideas for the creation of a Pantheon of Outstanding Ukrainians. The thematic meeting was attended by Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, Deputy Head of the Office of the President Iryna Vereshchuk, members of parliament, scientists, representatives of the public, and the National Remembrance Institute.
According to Budanov, the National Military Memorial Cemetery (NVMC) is to play an important role in the reburial process.
Currently, Ukrainian diplomatic missions have already identified the graves of 98 prominent Ukrainians in 21 countries. Among the discovered graves are the resting places of political, military, cultural, and public figures of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), the West Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR), OUN-UPA, the government of the UNR in exile, and participants of the national liberation struggles.
