Ukrainian opera star turned folk hero killed by sniper

Wassyl Slipak, a Ukrainian baritone at the Paris Opera, was killed by a sniper on Wednesday in eastern Ukraine.

Slipak had become something of a folk hero for leaving the opera two years ago to return home to join the fight of Ukrainian soldiers in the country’s east, an image strengthened by his adoption of a traditional Ukrainian cossack hairstyle.

Born in Lviv, western Ukraine, Slipak was 41 when he died near the town of Debaltseve.

Source: The New York Times