Ukraine must return remains of Mazepa, Orlyk – Yushchenko
Ukraine is obliged to seek the return of the remains of Hetmans Ivan Mazepa and Pylyp Orlyk, Ukraine's Third President (2004-2010) Viktor Yushchenko said.
"For centuries, the enemy tried not only to destroy us physically but also to scatter our memory across the world. Our leaders, our hetmans, thinkers, and warriors became captives of foreign cemeteries. Today, standing on the holy hills of Kyiv, we must clearly realize: the Ukrainian Pantheon of Heroes will not be complete until everyone who forged the shield of our independence returns home," Yushchenko said on Facebook on Monday following his attendance at the reburial ceremony for Head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk at the National Military Memorial Cemetery (NMMC).
Ukraine is obliged to return the remains of "the great Hetman Ivan Mazepa, the creator of the first Constitution Pylyp Orlyk, Chief Otaman Symon Petliura, Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, leader Stepan Bandera, and thousands of other dignitaries of our lineage," Yushchenko said.
As long as these figures remain abroad, Ukraine's historical topography stays "wounded," Yushchenko said.
As reported, the remains of Ukrainian writer and poet Oleksandr Oles were reburied at the Lukianivske State Historical and Memorial Reserve in Kyiv in January 2017. Oles died in 1944 in Prague, Czechia, where he was buried. His and his wife's remains were exhumed because Czech laws require rent payments for cemetery plots.
The Culture Ministry said at the time that a special commission would be set up under the ministry to handle the reburial of prominent Ukrainians, but no visible progress followed.
The Cabinet of Ministers in June 2025 approved the procedure for reburying prominent 20th-century fighters for Ukrainian independence at the NMMC.
Head of the President's Office Kyrylo Budanov in late March said that following all discussions, he would soon submit developments and proposals to the president regarding the creation of a Pantheon of Prominent Ukrainians to list outstanding natives of Ukraine currently buried abroad.
The Cabinet on May 15 ordered the reburial of the remains of Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in Ukraine. The exhumation ceremony took place in Luxembourg on May 19, and the reburial at the NMMC took place on May 25.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on May 19 said Ukraine is negotiating the return of the body of Yevhen Konovalets, a colonel of the UNR Army, commander of the Sich Riflemen, and the founder and first head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, who is buried at the Crooswijk Cemetery in Rotterdam, Netherlands. Deputy Head of the President's Office Iryna Vereshchuk on May 25 said Ukraine has already received permission for the reburial of Konovalets, which will take place shortly.
Current OUN Head Bohdan Chervak, who is also first deputy head of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting, on May 20 said the return of the remains of Yevhen Konovalets and Symon Petliura, the head of the Directorate of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) and chief otaman of the UNR army and navy, could happen soon.
Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) Head Oleksandr Alforov said it is necessary to discuss the reburial in Ukraine of Symon Petliura (buried in Paris, France) and Pavlo Skoropadsky, the Hetman of the Ukrainian State (buried in Oberstdorf, Germany).
