What happened: Ukraine brings its historical heroes home
The reburial of Andriy Melnyk and Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk is not a separate ceremony around one historical figure. It is part of Ukraine’s broader state policy to create its own national military pantheon.
On May 31, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law on the National Military Memorial Cemetery. The document established the legal framework for creating a place where Ukraine will commemorate those who defended its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Later, the state made additional decisions related to the construction and operation of this memorial complex.
The National Military Memorial Cemetery is located in the Kyiv region, within the Hatne community of the Fastiv district, near the village of Markhalivka. It is not just a cemetery but a large state memorial complex: with burial fields, columbaria, religious structures, museum space, and infrastructure for the honorable burial of Ukrainian defenders and fighters for independence.
The first burials at the National Military Memorial Cemetery took place on August 29, 2025, on the Day of Remembrance of Ukraine’s Defenders. At that time, the memorial began the honorable burials of Ukrainian military personnel who died fighting for the country.
In 2026, Ukraine began returning not only modern defenders but also historical figures of the national liberation movement of the 20th century.
On May 19, 2026, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the process of reburial of Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk had begun. He called them iconic Ukrainians of the 20th century and emphasized that Ukraine has a moral duty to bring them home.
On May 25, 2026, Andriy Melnyk and Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk were reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the Kyiv region. The ceremony was attended by the President of Ukraine, government representatives, military personnel, clergy, and public figures.
Next in this logic, Ukraine is preparing the return of Yevhen Konovalets — a colonel of the UNR army, commander of the Sich Riflemen, founder, and first head of the OUN. He is currently buried at the Crooswijk Cemetery in Rotterdam, and the Ukrainian side has already received permission for his reburial.
This is not about a random political gesture. Ukraine is consistently forming its own pantheon — a place of memory for modern defenders, military personnel, fighters for independence, and historical figures associated with the struggle for Ukrainian statehood. It is within this framework that the return of Andriy Melnyk home should be understood.
After the reburial of Andriy Melnyk and Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the Kyiv region, there was a sharp reaction from Israel.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed “regret” over the official state reburial of Melnyk and stated that “historical truth and the memory of the victims killed by the Nazis and their accomplices cannot be ignored.”
Yad Vashem also criticized the move. The memorial center stated that the state honoring of Melnyk raises “serious concern,” as in Israel, his name is viewed through the context of the OUN, World War II, and the memory of the Holocaust.
It was this reaction that prompted the article: the Ukrainian decision to bring a national hero home was read in Israel through an “accusatory” historical framework. Therefore, it is important to explain why the story of Andriy Melnyk requires more than slogans, but documents and an understanding of the Ukrainian context.
The reburial of Andriy Melnyk in Ukraine once again brought to the public sphere a question that has long required a more mature conversation. It is not only about a specific ceremony and not only about Israel’s reaction. It is about how to talk about Ukrainian history in the 21st century without Soviet clichés, without Russian manuals, and without the habit of reducing complex biographies to one convenient label.
Andriy Melnyk is a national hero of Ukraine, a military and political figure, a participant in the struggle for Ukrainian statehood, a senior officer of the Sich Riflemen, a representative of a generation that tried to maintain the idea of an independent Ukraine in an era of empires’ collapse, wars, emigration, and totalitarian pressure.
His biography cannot be summed up in one sentence.
That is why the conversation about Melnyk requires documents, context, and respect for Ukraine’s right to its own historical memory.
Not slogans.
Not automatic accusations.
Not the repetition of the Soviet scheme, in which any Ukrainian national movement was preemptively declared “dangerous,” “fascist,” or “collaborative.”
For Ukraine, Melnyk is part of the national historical pantheon. His name is associated with the UNR, the Sich Riflemen, the struggle for statehood, emigration, the anti-Soviet line, and the preservation of the idea of independence in years when Ukrainian political subjectivity was being erased from the map of Europe.
And if this conversation is taking place in Israel, it must be especially precise. Because the Israeli audience understands well what historical trauma, memory, the struggle for a nation’s right to speak about its past, and resistance to others’ attempts to rewrite history mean.
Melnyk during the UNR: order against pogrom agitation
One of the important facts that should be mentioned in any honest conversation about Melnyk relates to January 1919.
Ukrainian sources mention Andriy Melnyk’s order No. 22 dated January 13, 1919. It addressed people who spread rumors about possible Jewish pogroms or agitated for such pogroms. Such provocateurs were to be handed over to a military field court.
This is a fundamental episode.
It shows Melnyk not through later propagandistic accusations but through a specific document from his early military period. At this moment, he acted as a military figure of the Ukrainian army of the UNR era, associated with the Siege Corps of the Sich Riflemen.
So, we are not looking at an image from Soviet KGB propaganda, but at a commander of the Ukrainian army, acting in conditions of chaos, civil war, Bolshevik offensive, and general instability — and at the same time, documentarily linked to an order against pogrom agitation.
This is important to state directly.
Melnyk should not be viewed through the presumption of anti-Semitism. There is a specific early document that shows the opposite line: the prosecution of those who spread rumors about Jewish pogroms or incited them.
This fact should not be hidden in a footnote. It should be at the center of the discussion.
UNR, OUN, and Soviet propaganda
The main mistake in the conversation about Melnyk is mechanically connecting different eras and different political contexts.
Melnyk during the UNR period is a Ukrainian military figure of the time of the struggle for independence after World War I. It is the Sich Riflemen, the UNR army, the attempt to create a state on the ruins of empires, resistance to the Bolsheviks, and the search for Ukrainian subjectivity at a time when the future of Eastern Europe was still undefined.
Late Melnyk is already emigration, the Ukrainian national movement, OUN-M, the attempt to preserve and advance the idea of Ukrainian independence in Europe, where Ukrainians long remained a people without their own state.
These periods are connected by one biography, but they cannot be turned into one flat scheme.
Soviet propaganda did exactly that for decades: erased differences, mixed the UNR, OUN, different currents of the Ukrainian movement, different years, different documents, and different political decisions. Everything was reduced to one label, convenient for Moscow: Ukrainian nationalism as supposedly “innate evil.”
After the collapse of the USSR, this scheme did not disappear. Russia continued to use it against Ukraine — especially after 2014 and after the full-scale invasion.
Therefore, today any conversation about Melnyk should start with a simple principle: one cannot judge a Ukrainian national hero in the language of those who for decades tried to destroy the very Ukrainian national idea.
Late period of Melnyk: political context
Melnyk as the leader of OUN-M also requires a normal historical analysis.
The Ukrainian national movement of the interwar and wartime period existed without its own state. Ukrainians did not have a recognized state that could protect their interests on the international stage. There was no equal place among the great powers. There was no security. There were no guarantees.
There were empires, occupations, Soviet terror, Polish policy, German pressure, emigration, war, and a constant attempt by Ukrainians to return the issue of independence to the European agenda.
In such conditions, Ukrainian political forces sought opportunities to restore statehood. This was not a simple story. But it was not the propaganda that Moscow painted for decades.
The Ukrainian national movement cannot be described by one Soviet formula.
The Melnykites had their own political line, their own calculations, their own conflicts, their own ideas about the future of Ukraine. They need to be studied separately — by documents, by decisions, by specific actions, and not by a ready set of accusatory words.
This is especially important for the Israeli conversation. Israel knows what the struggle for a nation’s right to statehood is. Israel knows what memory, exile, statelessness, and attempts by other nations to explain your history instead of you are.
Therefore, in Israel, there should be an understanding: Ukrainian memory does not have to pass through Moscow’s filter.
Why Melnyk is not a figure for a Soviet label
Andriy Melnyk was a man of the Ukrainian national idea. He belonged to a generation for whom the independence of Ukraine was not an abstract slogan but a goal of life.
His path went through service in the Ukrainian army, participation in the Sich Riflemen movement, work in Ukrainian political emigration, leadership of OUN-M, and the preservation of the idea of Ukrainian statehood in conditions when the Soviet Union tried to destroy this idea physically, politically, and culturally.
That is why he is a national hero for Ukraine.
One can study his decisions. One can argue about different stages of his activity. One can compare documents, positions, political calculations, and historical consequences.
But one cannot start a conversation with a ready-made verdict created in the tradition of Soviet anti-Ukrainian propaganda.
This is not a historical approach.
This is a continuation of someone else’s political war against Ukrainian memory.
Ukrainian memory and the Israeli conversation: where precision is needed
The Israeli reaction to Ukrainian historical figures often goes through the memory of World War II and the Holocaust. This is understandable. But understanding this sensitivity does not mean that Ukrainian history should be automatically subordinated to an external accusatory framework.
Ukraine has the right to its own national pantheon.
Ukraine has the right to bury its heroes.
Ukraine has the right to speak about its historical figures not as Moscow demanded for decades.
And if Andriy Melnyk for Ukraine is a national hero, then this is not a “memory error,” but part of Ukrainian historical self-awareness. His figure is associated with the struggle for statehood, with the UNR, with the Sich Riflemen, with emigration political work, and with the anti-Soviet line of the Ukrainian movement.
For NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency it is fundamentally important not to substitute analysis with ready-made labels. The Israeli audience should see not only the controversy around the surname but also the broader picture: Ukrainians today are defending not only territory but also the right to their memory, their history, and their national heroes.
This right is especially important now when Russia is waging war not only against the Ukrainian army but also against Ukrainian identity.
Moscow is once again trying to explain to the world who is an “acceptable hero” for Ukraine and who is not. Once again imposing its vocabulary. Once again turning history into a weapon. Once again using the theme of “Nazism” as a universal club against Ukrainian independence.
Israel should not become part of this scheme.
Documents instead of slogans
The history of Melnyk requires a calm and strong approach.
There is the 1919 order against pogrom agitation — it needs to be taken into account.
There is the Ukrainian struggle for statehood — it cannot be erased.
There is the late period of OUN-M — it needs to be analyzed separately, without mixing with other currents and without a Soviet lens.
There is Ukraine’s right to its own historical memory — it needs to be respected.
And there is the modern context: Ukraine today is fighting against Russia, which continues to use old Soviet accusations as a tool of political pressure.
Therefore, the main question is not whether Israel should agree with every Ukrainian historical accent.
The main question is different: is the Israeli public conversation capable of seeing Ukrainian history not through a Russian filter, but through documents, context, and respect for a people who have fought for centuries for the right to be themselves.
Andriy Melnyk is not a character from a Soviet manual.
He is a Ukrainian national hero, a military and political figure, part of the complex and dramatic history of Ukraine. And if we are to talk about him seriously, we must start not with labels, but with facts.
With the 1919 order.
With the UNR.
With the Sich Riflemen.
With OUN-M as a separate political direction.
With Ukrainian statelessness.
With the struggle against Soviet erasure of memory.
And with the understanding that Ukraine itself has the right to decide how to honor its heroes.
Andriy Melnyk: briefly
Andriy Atanasovych Melnyk was born on December 12, 1890, in the village of Volya Yakubova near Drohobych, in what was then Austria-Hungary. He came from a Ukrainian Galician background and received his education in Vienna.
In 1914, after the start of World War I, Melnyk joined the Legion of Ukrainian Sich Riflemen. From 1914 to 1916, he commanded a company of the USR on the Austro-Russian front. In 1916, he was captured by the Russians and held in a camp near Tsaritsyn. On January 6, 1917, he escaped from captivity with a group of Galician Ukrainians and soon reached Kyiv.
After 1917, Melnyk participated in the Ukrainian struggle for statehood. He was associated with the Sich Riflemen Corps of Yevhen Konovalets, served in the army of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, and attained the rank of colonel of the UNR army. In January 1919, he became the chief of staff of the UNR army.
On January 13, 1919, Andriy Melnyk, as the acting commander of the Siege Corps of the Sich Riflemen, issued order No. 22. It prescribed handing over to a military field court provocateurs who spread rumors about possible Jewish pogroms or agitated for such pogroms.
After the defeat of the UNR, Melnyk remained in the Ukrainian national movement. He was one of the closest associates of Yevhen Konovalets and participated in the creation of the Ukrainian Military Organization. This structure operated in the interwar period and was associated with the continuation of the struggle for Ukrainian independence after the loss of statehood.
After the assassination of Yevhen Konovalets by an NKVD agent in 1938, Melnyk became one of the key figures of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. In 1939, he was confirmed as the head of the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists. After the split of the OUN, he led the Melnyk faction — OUN-M.
The ideological line of Melnyk and OUN-M included Ukrainian statehood, anti-Sovietism, national discipline, continuity with the UNR tradition, and the struggle for an independent Ukraine. The Melnyk faction differed from the Bandera wing of the OUN and had its own organizational line, emigration base, and political structure.
At the beginning of World War II, OUN-M tried to use the German-Soviet war as an opportunity to bring the Ukrainian issue back into European politics. Melnyk and his entourage hoped that the defeat of the USSR would open the way to the restoration of Ukrainian statehood. In 1939–1941, representatives of the Ukrainian national movement maintained contacts with German structures, including the Abwehr, but German promises regarding Ukrainian independence were not realized.
Nazi Germany did not recognize an independent Ukraine. In 1941–1943, German authorities restricted and suppressed Ukrainian political structures, and representatives of the Ukrainian national movement were arrested and executed. During this period, OUN-M lost several active figures, including Oleh Olzhych, who effectively led the activities of the Melnyk faction in the occupied territories.
At the end of 1943, Melnyk and his wife moved to Vienna, trying to restore contact with members of OUN-M in the occupied Ukrainian territories. At the end of January 1944, he and his wife were arrested by the Vienna Gestapo. After this, Melnyk was transferred to Berlin, interrogated by Gestapo representatives, and then held as a special prisoner.
In 1944, Melnyk and his wife were sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, Melnyk was held as a political prisoner; in September 1944, he was transferred to the isolation cell Zellenbau. On October 18, 1944, he was released along with several other Ukrainian nationalists when Germany tried to use Ukrainian emigration forces amid military defeat.
After his release, Melnyk remained in emigration. From 1945, he lived in Germany and Luxembourg. In 1946, he participated in the creation of the Ukrainian Coordination Committee, and in 1947 — the Ukrainian National Council. In the same 1947, at the Third Great Assembly of Ukrainian Nationalists, he was elected the lifelong head of the Leadership of Ukrainian Nationalists.
In the post-war period, Melnyk continued anti-Soviet political activity in Ukrainian emigration. He supported the idea of restoring an independent Ukraine, participated in the coordination of Ukrainian organizations abroad, and wrote historical materials about the struggle for Ukrainian statehood.
In 1957, Andriy Melnyk proposed the idea of creating a worldwide organization of Ukrainians. This idea was realized after his death: in 1967, the World Congress of Free Ukrainians was established, later known as the World Congress of Ukrainians.
Andriy Melnyk died on November 1, 1964, in Luxembourg. He was buried in a cemetery in the city of Luxembourg. In 2026, the remains of Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofiya Fedak-Melnyk were returned to Ukraine and reburied at the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the Kyiv region.
In the modern Ukrainian framework, Andriy Melnyk is a national hero, a colonel of the UNR army, the head of OUN-M, and a fighter for Ukraine’s independence. His biography includes several different stages: Sich Riflemen, UNR army, the 1919 order against pogrom agitation, emigration, leadership of OUN-M, anti-Soviet political line, and post-war activities of the Ukrainian diaspora.
…
Ukraine is looking for workers, Israel shows a model: migrants cover only 0.1% of market needs - June 5, 2026
- Новости Израиля
Trump promises a finale with Iran: deadline, Pakistan, and a deal that is not yet in place - June 5, 2026
- Новости Израиля
The Kishinev pogrom: In 1903, the central authorities in Russia wanted Jewish blood to be shed, and that is exactly what happened. - June 5, 2026
- Новости Израиля