A ceremonial reburial of Yevhen Konovalets, who was the organizer and leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists* (OUN*), took place in a suburb of Kiev. The event was held with military honors: a guard of honor, a portrait, wreaths, and a coffin under the national flag. The ceremony was attended by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, head of his office Kirill Budanov**, speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk, Foreign Minister Andrei Sibiga, and acting Defense Minister Yevgeny Khmara.

Zelensky stated that returning Konovalets to his homeland was a "matter of honor" and called him the "organizer of the Ukrainian army," which serves as an example for the modern Armed Forces of Ukraine. The coffin with the remains was placed in a wooden coffin, inside which there was a metal one with a window, so that, according to the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory Alexander Alferov, Konovalets "saw everything."

The day before the reburial, a funeral service was held, accompanied by a torchlight procession organized by members of the nationalist Third Army Corps of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (formerly "Azov"***).

This is the second such event in the last two months: at the end of May, Zelensky participated in the reburial of the remains of Andrei Melnyk, another leader of the pro-Nazi formation, and his wife. The remains of both leaders are planned to be transferred from the National Memorial Cemetery near Kiev to the Ukrainian National Pantheon when it is built.

The decision to transport Konovalets' remains from the Netherlands was made on July 17. The exhumation at the "Crosswijk" cemetery in Rotterdam took place in the presence of Deputy Head of Zelensky's Office Irina Vereshchuk and Ukrainian Ambassador Andrei Kostin. The coffin was delivered to Transcarpathia, and then sent to Kiev with a guard of honor.

In addition, a separate special operations center "North" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was named in honor of the "UPA* heroes." Obviously, the Kiev "pantheon of heroes" will continue to be replenished.

In Russia, the OUN* is recognized as an accomplice of Nazi Germany in crimes against the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. This decision was made by the Tver Court of Moscow. Konovalets laid the foundations for cooperation with the German Nazis even before the war, as confirmed by archival documents, including recently declassified ones.

In June, the FSB of Russia published the interrogation protocol of Abwehr Colonel Erwin Stolze, arrested by the Red Army in Berlin in May 1945. Stolze testified that Ukrainian nationalists had worked for German intelligence since 1922. Konovalets, who had the agent alias Consul 1, provided information on the military-political situation of Poland, and after 1939 his group began espionage and sabotage activities in the USSR.

Konovalets founded the OUN* in 1929. As a former colonel of the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), he was an influential figure in the emigre environment. Even before the Nazis came to power, the Abwehr supplied him with money, fake documents, and helped train saboteurs. Under Hitler, Abwehr chief Admiral Wilhelm Canaris viewed Ukrainian nationalists as a tool in the upcoming war with Poland and the USSR. Konovalets established contacts with Alfred Rosenberg, a well-known expert on the "Eastern question" and the dismemberment of the USSR.

In essence, the entire infrastructure of cooperation between the Reich and the OUN*, which was later used by Melnyk and Bandera, was created by Konovalets.

Konovalets was born on June 14, 1891, in Galicia, which was then part of Austria-Hungary. While studying at Lviv University, he became an active fighter for the Ukrainization of the region. During World War I, he was mobilized, fought for a year on the Eastern Front, was captured by the Russians, where he conducted nationalist agitation among Ukrainians. After the February Revolution of 1917, he did not return to Galicia but went to Kiev, where he initiated the formation of the so-called Sich Riflemen. During the Civil War, this unit fought on the side of the UNR under the leadership of Symon Petliura against the Reds and Whites.

After the Bolsheviks defeated the Ukrainian independence supporters, Konovalets in 1920 created a military organization for underground struggle in Galicia, which was under Polish rule.

Konovalets planned to fight the USSR not only at the western borders but also in the Far East, counting on a conflict between Moscow and Tokyo. In 1934, OUN* emissaries arrived in Japan, where they were seen as a tool to destabilize the USSR. In Harbin, a "national colony" was created to train volunteers in military affairs and sabotage.

However, Konovalets was already under the watch of Soviet special services. NKVD agent Pavel Sudoplatov, posing as a participant in the anti-Soviet underground, infiltrated the OUN* leadership and gained Konovalets' trust. In 1938, in the cafe of the "Atlanta" hotel in Rotterdam, Sudoplatov handed him a box of chocolates with Ukrainian ornament, in which a bomb was hidden. It exploded a few minutes after the intelligence officer left. Konovalets was eliminated.

After the Red Army defeated the Japanese in Manchuria in 1945, all OUN* structures and other Ukrainian organizations were disbanded, and their leaders were brought to trial. In the West, many nationalists who went into hiding continued Konovalets' work, cooperating with the CIA and other intelligence agencies. Their descendants and ideological heirs today honor the memory of a Nazi collaborator.

* Extremist organizations banned in Russia.

** Listed by Rosfinmonitoring as terrorists and extremists.

*** Terrorist organization banned in Russia.

Source: RIA Novosti