Dissident and political prisoner Vasyl Ovsienko paid last respects in Kyiv. PHOTO

On Friday, Kyiv said goodbye to dissident and Soviet political prisoner Vasyl Ovisenko, who died on 19 July at age 75 after a long illness.

According to Censor.NET, this was reported by Radio Liberty.

The funeral service was held at the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (on Sovki) in Solomianskyi district of Kyiv. Relatives and friends, politicians, artists, journalists and publicists came to pay their last respects to the famous Ukrainian public figure.

"Today we said goodbye to Vasyl Ovsiyenko, an indomitable political prisoner of the USSR, one of the most conscientious historians of the Ukrainian resistance and human rights movement, a sincere friend of the Crimean Tatar people, a great Ukrainian," Refat Chubarov, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, wrote on Facebook.

Read on Censor.NET - Ukrainian dissident and political prisoner Vasyl Ovsiyenko has died

Vasyl Ovsiienko was born on 8 April 1949 in the village of Stavky, Radomyshl district, Zhytomyr region. In 1967-1972, he studied at the Faculty of Philology of Kyiv University. In the spring of 1968, he made several photographic prints of Ivan Dziuba's work "Internationalism or Russification?" He distributed Ukrainian samizdat among students.

He was first arrested on charges of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda in March 1973.

In total, Vasyl Ovsiyenko served 13.5 years in prison for his beliefs.

In September 1988, Vasyl Ovsiienko joined the All-Ukrainian Coordination Council of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group and headed the Zhytomyr branch of the organisation.