March 28, 2026, several Ukrainian platforms brought up a topic on the agenda that, during wartime, sounds not like a cultural formality for the country, but as a matter of state self-identification. It’s about the creation of a Pantheon of Outstanding Ukrainians in Kyiv — a space where, in the future, the remains of famous Ukrainian figures buried abroad may be relocated. On that day, 24 Kanal and Ukrinform wrote about it, with the latter source reporting that Kyrylo Budanov intends to submit proposals on this project to Volodymyr Zelensky in the near future.
For an Israeli reader, this story is very clear. A country fighting for survival simultaneously tries to gather its own historical map: not only to protect the living but also to bring home the dead, whose names are scattered across cemeteries in Europe and the world. In states where memory is part of the political foundation, such steps are almost never secondary. They are always about the future, even when talking about the past.
What exactly is being discussed in Kyiv
The meeting took place on March 28, and the project is already being prepared for submission to the president
According to Ukrinform on March 28, 2026, the issue of the Pantheon was discussed at a special meeting with the participation of the leadership of the Verkhovna Rada, representatives of the President’s Office, scientists, public figures, the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, the government, and relevant organizations. After this meeting, Kyrylo Budanov stated that the state “must finally create a Pantheon of Outstanding Ukrainians,” and the results of the discussion and proposals are planned to be submitted to the president for consideration in the near future.
On the same day, 24 Kanal explained the logic of the project itself: it is about the reburial of famous Ukrainians who are buried abroad and the creation of a separate place of national memory in Kyiv. It was also emphasized that this idea was discussed together with representatives of the authorities, historians, the public, and the Institute of National Memory, and the topic is linked to the restoration of historical memory in the context of the ongoing war.
This is an important date — March 28, 2026. It is from this date that the topic ceased to be just an expert wish and entered the political plane. War generally accelerates such processes. What could have been discussed for months at round tables and academic conferences in peaceful years quickly turns into a state project during wartime because the issue of memory begins to work almost like a defense issue — only in a symbolic dimension. It’s no longer a debate about tastes. It’s a debate about how a nation shapes itself.
Kyiv is not talking about a monument, but about a mechanism of return
Judging by the publications, the task is not only to choose a beautiful place in the capital and call it the Pantheon. Budanov, as reported by Ukrinform, spoke about the need to determine the final list of figures and the specific place in Kyiv where the Pantheon will be created. 24 Kanal added that the possible role of the National Military Memorial Cemetery in this process is also being discussed separately.
Here begins the most serious part of the story. Because it’s one thing to pronounce a strong formula about bringing outstanding Ukrainians home. And quite another to turn it into a working system: a list of names, diplomatic requests, legal procedures, transportation of remains, consent of relatives, international law, internal consensus. Israeli society is well acquainted with this: memory never rests solely on words. It requires institutions, archives, rules, and sometimes very long state endurance.
Whom Ukraine wants to return and why the count is already in dozens of countries
As of March 28, diplomats have already identified 98 burials in 21 countries
One of the most substantial figures came precisely from the discussions on March 28, 2026. According to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Maryana Betsa, quoted by 24 Kanal, Ukrainian diplomatic institutions have already identified the burials of 98 Ukrainians in 21 countries worldwide. Among them are political, military, cultural, and public figures of different eras, including the period of the UNR, ZUNR, OUN-UPA, and the government in exile.
This makes the Pantheon project much more extensive than it might seem from the headline. Kyiv is not facing just one grave and not one tough dispute over a specific figure. It faces an entire dispersed geography of Ukrainian history. People who were considered their own by the state but died and were buried in emigration, exile, on foreign soil, often in those countries where Ukrainian memory was held not by the state but by the diaspora, church communities, and individual families. For Ukraine, this is not only a memorial but also an almost geopolitical plot: the country is gathering its history back.
Historian Yuriy Yuzich, also quoted by 24 Kanal on March 28, 2026, separately emphasized that special attention should be paid to burials left without proper care by local communities or diplomatic institutions. According to him, due to the peculiarities of legislation in different countries, some such graves may be lost or liquidated, and therefore they need to be urgently identified, especially in Europe.
And here the topic becomes even tougher. This is no longer a romantic conversation about returning great names. It’s a matter of urgency. Because if the state is late, some of these places of memory may disappear physically. Not in a figurative sense, but literally.
Reburial will require the consent of descendants and compliance with the laws of different countries
Ukrinform on March 28 separately conveyed Budanov’s words that every step — “from legal procedures to the transfer of remains” — must be carried out with the consent of descendants and in compliance with the legislation. The same material emphasized that it is about a “large comprehensive program” for the return of history and truth, not a targeted gesture.
For the Israeli audience, this is an important nuance. Because it is precisely on such details that the most beautiful state ideas usually collapse. If the project does not have a clear legal basis, it can easily turn into either an endless bureaucratic deadlock or a politicized conflict around individual names. Therefore, the dry, almost clerical part of the topic here is no less important than the symbolic one. And, perhaps, even more important.
At this point, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency sees the main nerve of the whole story: Ukraine is trying to create not just a memorial object in Kyiv, but a state language of return. The return of bodies, names, destinies, and its own historical continuity. But this will only succeed if the real infrastructure of the state keeps pace with the emotional power of the idea.
How the Pantheon is connected with the new memory policy in Ukraine
As early as March 5, Alfiorov spoke about the need to organize spontaneous memorials
Looking more broadly, the story with the Pantheon is not separate from other memorial processes in Ukraine. As early as March 5, 2026, the head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, Oleksandr Alfiorov, in an interview reported by Ukrinform, stated that spontaneous people’s memorials to those who died in the war need to be organized throughout the country. At that time, he specifically spoke about the work on the Wall of Memory of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv, which they want to bring to the state level, as well as the need to redesign the memorial space on Maidan Nezalezhnosti after the war.
This is a very important date — March 5, 2026. It shows that the Ukrainian state has been talking for several weeks not about isolated symbolic actions, but about a broader restructuring of the culture of memory. That is, the Pantheon of Outstanding Ukrainians is likely not a random separate project, but part of a larger line: from spontaneous people’s mourning to a formalized national memorial system.
It is here that the story becomes especially comprehensive for the Israeli reader. Ukraine is not just building a new object in Kyiv. It is trying to connect several layers of memory at once: those who died in the current war, heroes of past generations, scattered graves of emigration, vulnerable burials abroad, and central memorial points within the country. This is not a quick process. And most likely, not without conflict. But it is precisely the type of work that distinguishes a state concerned not only with the front of today but also with what its historical face will be tomorrow.
If we summarize without unnecessary pathos, the Pantheon project, which was publicly discussed on March 28, 2026, is not just news about possible reburials in Kyiv. It is a sign that Ukraine, during the war, is trying to gather scattered national memory in one place and give it a state form. And such decisions almost always outlive the news cycle itself. They remain for a long time.