Yevhen Konovalets: Colonel’s Remains Returned to Ukraine

The remains of Yevhen Konovalets, a colonel in the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, have been returned to Ukraine.

Back in his homeland, the figure’s remains were received with state and military honors, according to Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy head of the Office of the President.

The exhumation of Yevhen Konovalets’s remains took place on August 11 in Rotterdam at the Crossways Cemetery, where he had been buried in 1938.

It was in Rotterdam on May 23, 1938, that he was assassinated by NKVD agent Pavel Sudoplatov using an explosive device.

After all necessary procedures were completed, the coffin was transported to Ukraine via the “Uzhhorod” border crossing.

The farewell ceremony for the liberation movement leader will take place at the Patriarchal Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in Kyiv, and the reburial is scheduled to take place at the National Military Memorial Cemetery.

Yevhen Konovalets was born on June 14, 1891, in the village of Zashkiv in the Lviv region. He received his higher legal education at Lviv University, where he became actively involved in the Ukrainian civic, political, and student movements.

During World War I, Konovalets served as a non-commissioned officer in the non-commissioned officers’ corps of the Austro-Hungarian Army and was later taken prisoner by the Russians. After his release, he joined the effort to build up Ukrainian military units.

From 1917 to 1919, Yevhen Konovalets led the Sich Riflemen unit, which became one of the most combat-effective units of the Army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic.

Following the defeat of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the internment of its military personnel, Konovalets established the underground Ukrainian Military Organization (UVO) in 1920.

In 1929, at the first congress of Ukrainian nationalists in Vienna, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) was founded on Konovalets’ initiative, and he led it until his death.

The 131st Reconnaissance Regiment of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was named after Colonel Yevhen Konovalets.