President Petro Poroshenko has awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Ukrainian opera signer, volunteer fighter, participant of the Revolution of Dignity Vasyl Slipak, who was killed in the Donbas in summer 2016. Slipak was awarded posthumously.
Vasyl Slipak, globally renowned opera singer who had lived and worked in France for 19 years and sang in the Paris opera, abandoned his career and returned to defend Ukraine when the Russian aggression started. Slipak was killed at the front line near Donetsk as a Right Sector fighter on June 29, 2016. On June 30, 2016, Dnipro City residents bid their farewells to Slipak.
On July 1, 2016 he was buried at Lychakivske cemetery in Lviv.