A famous opera singer was killed by a sniper in eastern Ukraine. Photo

The singer of the Paris Opera Vasily Slipak, who fought in the ranks of the banned in Russia "Right Sector" in the Donbass, was killed by a sniper from a large-caliber rifle, Ukrainian media reported.

A member of the banned in Russia radical group "Right Sector *" was shot dead at about 6.00 in the area of ​​​​the village of Luganskoye, reports Ukrainian TV channel Hromadske TV. Official data on the death of Slipak has not yet been confirmed.

On Wednesday, Ambassador-at-Large of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba said that the Ukrainian Opera singer Vasily Slipak in Donbass; according to media reports, he fought in the ranks of the radical grouping "Right Sector" banned in Russia.

Slipak was born in the Lviv region. Pupil of the Lviv choir chapel "Dudaryk". Graduated from the Lviv Conservatory (now the Lysenko Academy of Music) in 1997. In 1994 he won a competition in the French city of Clermont. After that, he traveled to France for two years, singing there, until in 1996 he was offered to stay in the country forever. After completing his studies in Lviv, he was invited to the Paris Opera. He made a serious solo career in Europe. Passed to the finals of competitions in Budapest, Los Angeles, New York and Paris.

With the beginning of the revolution in Ukraine, Slipak abandoned his European career and returned to his homeland. Took part in the Maidan. Then he volunteered. Subsequently, Slipak went to fight as part of the seventh separate battalion of the Right Sector volunteer corps and joined Kyiv's military operation in the Donbass. I chose the call sign "Myth" (this is short for Mephistopheles from the opera "Faust").

At the end of hostilities, as Slipak admitted, he would like to return to work in France.

Right Sector is a Ukrainian association of radical nationalist organizations. In January and February 2014, the militants of the movement participated in clashes with law enforcement officers and the seizure of administrative buildings, and since April - in the suppression of protests in eastern Ukraine. In November 2014, the Supreme Court of Russia recognized the right-wing radical association as an extremist organization and banned its activities in the country. In January 2015, the Right Sector was included in the register of organizations banned in Russia.

Since mid-April 2014, the Kyiv authorities in the East of Ukraine launched a "special operation" to suppress the protest movement in the Donbass. According to the UN at the beginning of June 2016, at least 9.3 thousand people and 21.5 thousand have been injured since the beginning of the conflict in Donbass.

* An organization in respect of which a court has made a final decision to liquidate or ban activities on the grounds provided for by the Federal Law "On countering extremist activity"

The world-famous opera singer Vasily Slipak, who became a Ukrainian volunteer after the start of the war in Donbass, was killed by a sniper in eastern Ukraine.

Vasily Slipak lived and worked in France for 19 years, but after the start of the war in Donbass, he went to the front as a volunteer as part of the Right Sector.

Vasily Spivak on the Maidan in Kyiv during a farewell to the Right Sector fighters who died on June 11, 2016. This is Vasily's last trip to Kyiv. Photo: Yury Butusov/Facebook

The death was announced by journalist Yuri Butusov on his page in Facebook.

“Vasily Slipak, a world-famous opera singer who lived and worked in France for 19 years, sang at the Paris Opera, but with the onset of Russian aggression left his European career and returned to defend his homeland, died at the front near Donetsk in the ranks of the Right Sector,” wrote He.

According to him, Slipak had the call sign Myth - short for Mephistopheles - the character of his favorite opera Faust.

Vasily Slipak is a world-famous opera singer, one of the most famous baritones, has received numerous vocal awards. For the aria "Toreador" he received the award "Best Male Performance" at international festival opera performers, held in Armel.

While working in France, he sang on such famous stages as the Parisian Grand Opera, Athenaeum, Bastille Opera, performed in opera houses the cities of Massy and Saint-Étienne, as well as in Lyon's Amphitheater 3000.

Later Ministry of Culture confirmed the fact of Slipak's death and expressed condolences:

The Ministry of Culture of Ukraine expresses sincere condolences to loved ones, relatives, compatriots and the entire Ukrainian society in connection with the loss of a real hero of their land. Glory to the hero! Eternal memory to him!

Okean Elzy frontman Svyatoslav Vakarchuk shared his thoughts on the death of the famous opera singer Vasily Slipak in Donbass.

The singer wrote about this on his Twitter page.

“I did not know Vasily Slipak personally. But in my memory he is now forever! He and his voice… Heroes do not die!”, — wrote the musician.

Vasily Yaroslavovich Slipakwas born on December 20, 1974 in Lviv. At Ukrainian opera singer, soloist of the Paris National Opera. He lived in France for over 19 years and made a brilliant career.

But when the war began in the East, he took the call sign "Myth" and went to defend the Donbass. When he returned to France, he volunteered, collected help for the Ukrainian army.

On June 29, 2016, he died exactly where fierce battles took place yesterday. The militants suffered terrible losses. It seems as if the ATO people avenged their fallen comrade, the great son of Ukraine.

"They fought off the attack of the separatists, with the participation of artillery, military equipment. Vasily died from a sniper’s bullet, with a machine gun in his hands,” Vasily’s commander Alexander, with the call sign “Drug Podolyanin,” told the journalist about how he died.

According to the stories of his comrades, Vasily was a machine gunner.

“We fought with him on the front line in the late spring and summer of 2015 near Sands,” says Grigory Pivovarov, Vasily’s brother from the 7th battalion of the DUK. “He participated in battles, went to concerts and then returned to the front again. And not only fought, but he also sent a lot of help to the guys.It's okay that Vasya was not a professional military man, but an artist - learning to fight when you love your country is not difficult, the main thing is desire and faith.He showed by his own example what it means to truly love the Motherland By the way, he turned out to be a good warrior. He also sang to us sometimes."

Military medic Yana Zinkevich reports that Slipak was mortally wounded in the lower part of his body. Later, official information appeared: on June 18, Vasily went to Donbass to deliver the collected assistance to volunteer defenders, and planned to stay there for six months. But on June 29, while performing a combat mission as a machine gunner in the 1st assault company of the Right Sector Volunteer Ukrainian Corps (DUK PS), he died in battle at about 6:00 from an enemy 12.7 mm bullet fired by a sniper from a large-caliber rifle.

Vasily Slipak price own life saved comrades. Ukrainian defenders repulsed the attack of Russian armed forces on the village. Luhansk (Bakhmut district, Donetsk region) from the city of Debaltseve and launched a counteroffensive, pushing the enemy back from two fortified positions on the heights near the village. Logvinovo.

It fell to the parents and elder brother Orest to bury Vasily. It was Orest who once took little Vasya "to music" - the child began to sing almost at the same time as he spoke. At the age of six, Vasily climbed onto the table at a village wedding and sang "Tell me, do you love or not? And your eyes shine:" I am forever yours, "and four years later, the elder brother took Vasily to choir chapel"Dudarik".

In 1994 on international competition in France, a 20-year-old student of the Lviv Conservatory received the Grand Prix, and in 1996 he signed a contract with the Bastille Opera. He sang the part of the four devils from Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann" in such a way that the audience called him Mephistopheles.

And here is the aria "Toreador", for the performance of which Vasily received the prize "Best Male Performance" at the international festival opera singers in Armel.

Vasily lived in France, made an excellent career, but this did not alienate him from his homeland. When the Maidan began, he, not being able to go to Ukraine (he had a contract with the opera), arranged actions in support of Ukraine in France.

Parisian Ukrainians gathered at the Saint Michel fountain. This is where Symon Petlyura was once killed.

Vasily was proud of his first volunteer success - a Ford bought for the Right Sector with funds from a Paris demonstration.

He was proud, but thought that this was not enough. After living in France for 19 years, he left a star European life and came to defend his homeland.

So Vasily looked while working at the opera in Paris. An imposing man with aristocratic pallor and well-groomed hair.

And so he became in the Donbass, and only in memory of the scene he chose the call sign "Mephistopheles". Although, for convenience, it was shortened to "Myth" ... Because "Mephistopheles" screamed into the radio for too long.

He fought in the DUK "Right Sector".

"It all started with volunteering, "DUK PS" were our first godchildren, we call them that. We helped them with our entire volunteer organization "Fraternité Ukrainienne / Ukrainian Brotherhood". The first we helped was the 7th battalion "DUK PS" "I knew these people and it so happened that I'm here, but it could have been some other battalion. That's how volunteering naturally grew into active participation," Mif told reporters.

Since last summer, Vasily has changed several units, they said at the main headquarters of the DUK PS. His last unit was the DUK assault company.

The latest posts on Vasily Slipak's Facebook page are about business. He collected money for his brothers, because he was not only a fighter, but also a volunteer. I was looking for 50 black berets. Who knows what for. Friends joked, they say, there are fur. Or pink.

On the morning of June 29, 2016, the jokes were replaced by dozens of questions. "Alive?", "Vasily, are you alive?", "What have you done, brother..."

Vasily was buried in his homeland, in Lvov.

And a year later, "MYTH" was released - a new film by the authors of the tape

The deceased in the ATO zone in the Donbas turned out to be the brother of the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelyan. The head of the ministry himself wrote about this on his Facebook page, without specifying, however. relation degree.

Omelyan shared his memories of the killed soldier and published his photographs.

"He was energetic, full of optimism. No matter what, no matter how difficult it was - he smiled, joked, looked at the sky. He walked forward. Two meters tall, a straight spine and the truth from his lips. He lived by what he did. Not he just sang, but he was the hero of the stage. So he fought. Without talking about the war itself. He loved friends and girlfriends, firmly cut off his enemies, lived in Ukraine, "Omelyan wrote.

“Once, in childhood, I pinched his finger with a door. The nail came off, and the new one grew badly. “A sign, my brother always thinks of you,” he laughed at the meeting and poked that finger.

Infinitely sociable, ready to give the last and just as carelessly come to you for a day, and stay or invite you for a few months, "said Omelyan.

He also wrote that at first Slipak did not admit that he was fighting in the ATO zone and refused help for a long time.

"The stage was his vocation. It was his Hollywood. He went to it from childhood. Dudarik, the French Grand Prix, Paris Opera –the achievement is not only personal, but, as it seemed to us, the whole of Ukraine and our family," the minister also wrote.

Recall that the Opera singer Vasily, who fought in the Donbass in the ranks of the DUK Right Sector