Dissident and Hero of Ukraine Stepan Khmara dies
21 February 2024 09:04
Dissident, Hero of Ukraine, deputy of three convocations of the Verkhovna Rada and co-author of the Constitution of Ukraine Stepan Khmara has died in Ukraine at the age of 87. His wife, Roksolana Khmara, reported this on Facebook , according to 
“I don’t want to believe it. I don’t want to write this. My dearest man 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…”
– she wrote.
Recently, Stepan Khmara was seriously ill. In autumn, he was confirmed with a difficult diagnosis. on 14 February, writer Vakhtang Kipiani reported that Khmara was hospitalised and needed money for treatment. He needed 200 thousand hryvnias for chemotherapy alone.
What is known about Stepan Khmara
Stepan Ilkovych Khmara was born on 12 October 1937 in the village of Bobiatyn, Lviv region. He graduated from the Lviv Medical Institute with a degree in dentistry.
In 1972, he began to actively participate in the publication of the underground magazine Ukrainian Bulletin and distributed samizdat. Already in 1975, they tried to arrest him, but the case was closed due to lack of evidence.
However, in 1980, Stepan Khmara was arrested and sentenced to 7 years in prison and 5 years in exile on charges of “anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda”. After his release in 1987, he actively joined the re-establishment of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, participated in the movement to legalise the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the national movement.
In 1990, Stepan Khmara was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. In the same year, together with Lev Lukyanenko and Mykhailo Horyn, he founded the Ukrainian Republican Party.
In the autumn of 1990, he joined the Revolution on Granite, going on a hunger strike with students on the Maidan in Kyiv.
He was elected three times as a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the first, second and fourth convocations. In particular, since December 2001, he served as Deputy Chairman of the Batkivshchyna party, from which he left in the spring of 2005 due to a conflict over the party’s policy in parliament.
In 2006, Stepan Khmara was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the State “For outstanding personal services in the struggle for the revival of the independence of Ukrainian statehood, devotion to the ideals of freedom and democracy”.
He actively participated in the Orange Revolution and the Revolution of Dignity.
Stepan Khmara was married twice. From his first wife Halyna, he has two children – 57-year-old son Roman and 51-year-old daughter Solomiya.
His second wife, Roksolana, gave birth to a son, Taras, who is now 22 years old.
