Stepan Khmara said goodbye in Kyiv
Kyiv • UNN
A prominent Ukrainian politician and patriot, Stepan Khmara, was buried at the Baikove cemetery.
Today, Kyiv said goodbye to politician Stepan Khmara, who was buried at the Baikove cemetery. This was reported by the mayor Vitali Klitschko, UNN reports.
"Today, in Kyiv, we said goodbye to a great Ukrainian and indomitable patriot, Stepan Ilkovych Khmara.
Until his last breath, he fought for Ukraine, a free and democratic state. Having lived a very difficult life, he always said what he thought. He never betrayed his beliefs and never compromised his conscience.
Such moral authority will be sorely missed in Ukraine..
Ukraine will always honor you. May you rest in peace, Stepan Ilkovych!" Klitschko wrote on his Telegram channel.
Recall
Stepan Khmara died at the age of 87. He had been ill a lot lately.
Stepan Ilkovych Khmara was born on October 12, 1937, in the village of Bobiatyn, Lviv Oblast. He graduated from the Lviv Medical Institute with a degree in dentistry.
In 1972, he began contributing to the underground magazine Ukrainian Herald and distributing samizdat.
In 1975, law enforcement agencies made the first attempt to arrest Stepan Khmara. The case was closed due to the lack of evidence of a crime.
However, in 1980, Stepan Khmara was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison and 5 years in exile under the article "anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda." Stepan Khmara served his exile in the Perm region. After his release in 1987, he took an active part in the recreation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
In the spring of 1990, Stepan Khmara was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In April 1990, Khmara, together with Lev Lukyanenko and Mykhailo Horyn, created the Ukrainian Republican Party, of which he was elected deputy chairman. In November 1990, Stepan Khmara was arrested again and remained in prison until April 1991. He was accused of assaulting a police officer.
Subsequently, Stepan Khmara and a group of his supporters created the Ukrainian Conservative Republican Party (UCRP), of which he was elected chairman. He was elected to the Parliament in 1994. Later, he repeatedly participated in parliamentary races, but was never elected. Stepan Khmara is the author of the books Ethnocide of Ukrainians in the USSR and General Pogrom.
