A well-known Ukrainian politician and dissident, Stepan Khmara (born on 12 October 1937), has died at the age of 87.
Stepan Ilkovych was a political prisoner of Soviet concentration camps, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament of the first, second and fourth convocations. He is a Hero of Ukraine. He is a holder of the Order of Freedom and Prince Yaroslav the Wise of the Vth degree.
This was reported on Facebook by his wife Roksolana:
“I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to write this. My dearest husband in the world has died. That’s it.
We all did everything we could and even more. We so wanted him to be with us when our Victory was announced! I wanted so much to see his happy face, his beautiful face!
Because he was so beautiful even at the age of 86. His blue eyes were no longer so pure blue, but still bottomless.
He loved Ukraine and Ukrainians so much. He tore his heart and soul for it. And Ukraine will rise from the ashes, it will rise again! I know…
Stepan Ilkovych Khmara was born in the village of Bobiatyn, Sokal district, Lviv region. He grew up in a family of farmers in the post-war years, which included the famine of 1946-1947 and the struggle of the UPA.
Stepan’s parents were believers: his father sang in the church choir, and his mother, although she had no schooling, could quote the Scriptures by heart and even debate with priests.
According to Khmara, they had a “very ambitious family”: Stepan’s grandfather was a village elder during the Austro-Hungarian rule and built a church.
“My parents gave me good genetics and brought up a keen sense of justice,” said Khmara.
It is known that Stepan Khmara was hospitalised the day before (14 February). The family needed financial support for chemotherapy.
People are already writing reviews about Stepan Ilkovych on social media.
Oles Doniy recalled his support for the ‘Revolution on Granite’ in the 90s:
“Ilkovych is the pride of Ukraine, and our pride. I have always been grateful and will always be grateful to him for fully supporting us during the Student Revolution on Granite in October 1990.
Formally, we were supported by all the then oppositionists from the People’s Council and the People’s Movement, but their support did not extend to our main demand, “Re-election of the Verkhovna Rada on a multi-party basis”, and only Ilkovich organised a group of people as stubborn as he was (12 people), brought them to our camp, and they went on hunger strike on an equal footing with the students.
If the opposition and Ukraine had listened to us then and held re-elections to the Verkhovna Rada, we would have removed the communist nomenklatura from power in 1991, and Ukraine, along with the rest of Central Europe, would have long been in NATO and the EU, and therefore fascist Russia would not have attacked us. Ilkovych felt this.
And like a fighter (an eternal fighter!) he defended it. That is, he was ahead of both the times and his colleagues in the opposition (including former dissidents and political prisoners).
Let’s recall Stepan Khmara’s famous quote: “The key to the collapse of the Russian Empire, which is called the Russian Federation, lies in Ukraine. This is probably our historical mission.”