OUN head Melnyk and his wife reburied at NVMK
Colonel of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) and head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofia Fedak-Melnyk were reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery (NVMK).
As an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports, the reburial ceremony took place on Monday morning.
It was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, third President of Ukraine (2004-2010) Viktor Yushchenko, Prime Minister of Ukraine Yuliia Svyrydenko, Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov and his deputy Iryna Vereshchuk, Verkhovna Rada speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk, first deputy speaker Oleksandr Korniienko, Minister of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine Nataliia Kalmykova, Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andriy Sybiha, head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Oleksandr Alfiorov, head of the State Service for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience Viktor Yelensky, Kyiv regional military administration head Mykola Kalashnyk, former UINM head and Verkhovna Rada deputy Volodymyr Viatrovych (European Solidarity faction), OUN head and first deputy head of the State Committee of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting Bohdan Chervak, deputy ministers, military personnel, public representatives, clergy and members of the Ukrainian historical community.
"When we were bringing Colonel Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofia back to Ukraine through Zakarpattia and half the country to our free capital, to Kyiv, there was no discord on that path that so often held us back before. There were no doubts about who is Ukraine’s true enemy and who are its friends, partners and brothers. And there was our gratitude, our unconditional gratitude to all those who dedicated their lives to serving Ukraine and thanks to whom Ukraine endures Russian strikes and survives," Zelenskyy said at the reburial.
The ceremony took place in accordance with a military funeral ritual with full military honors.
A particularly symbolic element of the ceremony was the bringing to the burial site of soil from Melnyk’s grave in Luxembourg.
The event marked the first honorary reburial of a fighter for Ukrainian independence on NVMK grounds.
On Saturday, May 23, the central memorial service and funeral rite over the remains of Melnyk and his wife was held at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) in Kyiv. The reburial had been scheduled for Sunday, May 24, but was postponed due to the Russian massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
As reported, in June 2025 the Cabinet of Ministers approved procedures for carrying out reburials at the NVMK of prominent fighters for Ukrainian independence in the 20th century.
In late March, Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov said that in the near future, following all discussions, he would submit to the president proposals regarding the creation of a Pantheon of prominent Ukrainians, listing prominent figures of Ukrainian origin currently buried abroad.
On May 15, the Cabinet of Ministers instructed that the remains of Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofia Fedak-Melnyk be reburied in Ukraine at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.
On May 19, a ceremony of exhumation of the remains of Melnyk and his wife took place in Luxembourg. On May 21, they were delivered to Ukraine, and on May 22 the coffins were laid out for public veneration at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the UGCC in Kyiv.
On May 19, President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine is in negotiations regarding the return of the body of UPR Army colonel, Sich Riflemen commander and founder and first head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Yevhen Konovalets, who is buried at Crooswijk cemetery in the city of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.