Zelenskyy Honors Reburied Ukrainian Leaders

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a reburial ceremony for Andriy Melnyk, a colonel in the Ukrainian People’s Republic Army and former head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and his wife, Sofia Fedak-Melnyk, at the National Military Memorial Cemetery on May 25, 2026.

The ceremony was attended by former President Viktor Yushchenko, Verkhovna Rada Chairman Ruslan Stefanchuk, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and other government officials, lawmakers, military personnel and civil society representatives. Zelenskyy said Melnyk had returned to the independent Ukraine he had envisioned.

The president described the reburial as the first step in a broader effort to return prominent Ukrainians buried abroad. He said work had also begun to bring home the remains of Yevhen Konovalets and other historical figures as part of plans to establish a Ukrainian National Pantheon.

Zelenskyy also honored Ukrainian soldiers buried at the cemetery and laid flowers at their graves. More than 300 Ukrainian defenders are interred there, according to the president’s office, including more than 200 whose identities have not been established. The first burials at the site took place in August 2025.