Zelenskyy: National Pantheon Will Be Established, and Only Ukrainians Will Decide Who Is Honoured

A national pantheon will be established in Ukraine, and only Ukrainians will decide who should be honoured there, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.

Zelenskyy recalled that the Verkhovna Rada had adopted legislation providing for the creation of a Ukrainian national pantheon.

“This is another guarantee that Ukrainian heroes from different eras, who fought for our independence, continue to strengthen Ukrainians today. To be strong means to be free,” the president said.

According to Zelenskyy, all Ukrainian heroes deserve to be honoured.

“There will definitely be a Ukrainian pantheon, and only Ukrainians will decide who our heroes are. This should not be limited to the state level. I ask all public officials and representatives of every community in Crimea to engage society much more actively in preserving the memory of the heroism of the Ukrainian people and immortalising the names of our heroes,” Zelenskyy said.

On July 1, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the establishment of the National Pantheon of Ukraine. The pantheon is expected to be located in central Kyiv, with the government allocating part of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra National Reserve for the project.

Even before the legislation was adopted, the initiative drew a sharp reaction in Poland. The office of Polish President Karol Nawrocki described the introduction of the bill by Zelenskyy as an “escalatory move” and linked it to a decision to name one of Ukraine’s military units after “heroes of the UPA.”