The political scientist spoke about the idea of reburial of nationalists in Ukraine

Political scientist Bezpalko: Ukraine has long been committed to nationalism

Wed, 06/03/2026 - 02:05

Photo: Global Look Press/Danylo Antoniuk

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The Ukrainian authorities, with the help of a series of reburials, want to distract people's attention from the difficult state of affairs at the front. This was stated by Bogdan Bezpalko, a political scientist and member of the Council on Interethnic Relations under the President of the Russian Federation, in an interview with Izvestia.

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According to him, the course towards building a state with Ukrainian nationalism as the dominant ideology has been taken in the country for a long time.

"It is interesting here that the same [leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation) Andrey] Melnyk had the strongest contradictions with [Nazi collaborator Stepan] Bandera, and [Simon] Petlyura was not a pure nationalist at all. But now this does not prevent [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky from putting them all in one basket. All efforts are aimed at presenting Ukraine as an independent state, first of all, independent from Russia," the expert emphasized.

On May 19, the remains of Miller and his wife Sofia were exhumed in Luxembourg. After that, they were transported to Ukraine, where they were solemnly reburied at the end of May. The authorities noted that the remains of Bandera and Petliura could be reburied according to the same scheme.

This decision was condemned in the world. The Israeli Foreign Ministry expressed regret over Melnyk's reburial, Lubosh Blaga, a member of the European Parliament from Slovakia, pointed out Zelensky's support for fascism, another European parliamentarian Thierry Mariani spoke about the double standards of the European Union due to the lack of reaction to what happened, and Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, advised the Ukrainian president to fear retribution from the spirit of his grandfather -a veteran who fought against Nazism.