You know, in his last six months Vasyl had changed a lot. Many tried to talk him out of going to the war, but he was adamant. All his money and all h… - Vasyl Slipak

Finally he decided to go to the frontlines because he needed to feel useful and to defend his country — it was so important for him. It's about the culture. It's not really about politics. It's about the freedom of his country.

Let's bow our heads, citizens. A great Ukrainian was killed today while defending our land and all of us... Wassyl Slipak, globally renowned opera singer, who had lived and worked in France for 19 years, in the Paris opera, but abandoned his career and returned to defend Ukraine when Russian aggression started, was killed at the front line near Donetsk as a Right Sector fighter. Volunteer soldier Wassyl Slipak is an example of a patriot citizen. Waasyl Slipak died as a soldier. Books will be written about him, streets named after him; concerts will be held for him, and students will be told about him in schools and conservatoires... Rest in peace, dear Meph, you laid your life for each of us, we will not forget your sacrifice for Ukraine. We will not be half-hearted.

Mr. Slipak was born in the western city of Lviv on Dec. 20, 1974. A musical prodigy as a child, he rose quickly to fame performing in France in the late 1990s. By 2011, he was at the top of his field, winning the prize for best male performer at the Armel Opera Competition and Festival in Szeged, Hungary, for his rendering of the Toreador Song from the opera Carmen.He adopted a traditional Ukrainian hairstyle, similar to a Mohawk, and served at various positions along the front line — a maze of trenches and minefields that surrounds separatist territory. Mr. Slipak, who had won fame in France for his renditions of the aria of Mephistopheles from the opera «Faust», adopted the nom de guerre Meph.