Despite having a successful artistic career (Slipak lived in France for the last 19 years of his life and worked as a soloist at the Paris Opera), he… - Vasyl Slipak

[He's] more than a colleague, more than a friend. I feel him like a brother. A man who loved every culture, you know, an open minded man.

I had heaps of work those days, it was very intensive and seemed to me endless. When I felt so desperate that I was about to give it all up, Wassyl was the only person who supported me: ‘Don’t worry, we will be doing everything together and we will succeed, he told. It was so simple, sincere, and convincing that I couldn’t help believing it. Since then our collaboration began. He was extremely useful for Ukraine here, in France. He was a true intellectual, he spoke seven languages. After Natalka Pasternak [Ukrainian community leader in France – Ed.] had passed away, he was the only person who had potential to unite us, to lobby Ukrainian interests on an international level… But he had a need to be at the forefront, where modern Ukrainian history was being written. So he abandoned work, stopped looking for contracts and sang only occasionally, so that he could send some money to Ukraine.

I am going to tell you a story. The story of a person for whom being listened to became the sense of his life. That's because that man had divine voice. He was called the best baritone and countertenor of the world. His voice sounded in Carnegie Hall here in New York, in Notre-Dame de Paris, Covent Garden Opera in London, and Grand Opera in Paris. Every one of you could have listened to his incredible singing, but, unfortunately, there is a thing that will not allow you to do so again. I looks like this and I will show you. That is. 12.7 millimeters, which not only ended his career - it stopped his life. By the way, it costs only ten U.S. dollars. And this is, unfortunately, the price of a human life on our planet. A man I've just told you about was Vasyl Slipak. He was a Ukrainian and soloist of the Paris National Opera who was murdered in Donbas, defending Ukraine against Russian aggression. (2019)