A last farewell to Nadiya Svitlychna

Nadiyka, beloved friend!

I waited each day in such fear of the news. And now it has come, and there are no words to express to you Love and Honour worthy of you. 

You were for me, and doubtless for thousands of people in Ukraine and in the Diaspora – living Ukraine, the embodiment of our principles, our conscience.

You were and are all that is best in Ukraine – honesty, kindness, unstinting commitment to people and to your unceasing work for them, for Ukraine’s freedom, independence and culture.

You were peaceful, gentle.  And you were always uncompromising, with no tolerance for opportunism, for lack of principles, pretence, hypocrisy and ostentatious patriotism.

Precisely for that reason you became in the West the spirit and clear-thinking political mind of the Ukrainian struggle for human rights and for Ukraine’s nationhood, you were the heart and moving force of that struggle, especially in your work for the External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and later of the Ukrainian Helsinki Union.

Your tact, your humour, your courage, the light of your being, so whole and in harmony, will remain in our hearts all our days.

Eternal Memory and Everlasting Peace, to you, our beloved friend.

Former Member of the External Representation of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and the Ukrainian Helsinki Union

Leonid Plyushch

Tatyana Plyushch