Requiem for poet Oleksandr Oles and wife Vira Kandyba held in Kyiv. PHOTO

Thousands of people attended the burial service of Oleksandr Oles and his wife Vira Kandyba.

The procession moved to the Lukianivske cemetery, where the remains of the couple will be buried, Censor.NET reports.

Patriarch Filaret of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate personally served the requiem in Volodymyr Cathedral.

Thousands of people attended the ceremony, including President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, his wife Maryna Poroshenko, Minister of Culture Yevhen Nyshchuk, the Cabinet members and many other politicians. There were also representatives of the Ukrainian culture community, in particular, Dmytro Pavlychko, Nina Matviienko and Ivan Malkovych.

Minister of Culture Yevhen Nyshchuk announced that Oleksandr Oles and his wife will be reburied at a separate alley at Lukianivske cemetery. The alley will be designed for reburials of outstanding Ukrainians buried abroad.

"Oleksandr Oles was a great Symbolist [poet], and it is symbolic that his reburial is held on the Memorial Day of Kruty Heroes," he said.

On Jan. 3, the remains of Ukrainian poet Oleksandr Oles and his wife were exhumed in Prague. Under the Czech laws, after a burial, the relatives or friends of a deceased person have to pay a rent for a place in the cemetery in the amount of 20,000 krones ($773.05) for a 10-year period.

Until recently, the rent for the grave of Oles had been paid by native of Ukraine Volodymyr Mykhailyshyn of his own volition. However, Mykhailyshyn has died recently, and his son buried him in the grave of Oles.