Vasyl Makukh

Vasyl Omelyanovich Makukh (Ukrainian: Васи́ль Омеля́нович Ма́кух) (14 November 1927, Lwów Voivodeship, Second Polish Republic – 5 November 1968, Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union) was a Soviet veteran of the World War II, political prisoner and Ukrainian activist, a member of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

As a Soviet soldier in November of 1944 Makukh defected and joined the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. In February of 1946 he was wounded shooting with the Soviet and Polish border guards at the Soviet-Polish border (today Poland–Ukraine border). On 15 February 1946 Makukh was taken to the district precinct of MVD in Velyki Mosty and later to the Lviv Prison No.4 (so called "Brygidka"). On 11 July 1946 the Military Tribunal of Lviv garrison sentenced him to 10 years of katorga with five years of rights restriction and confiscation of all his property. His sentenced Makukh served in Dubravlag (in Mordovia) and later other GULAG camps in Siberia. On 18 July 1955 he was freed out of prison and exiled to special settlement where he met his wife who also used to served 10 years imprisonment previously. In 1956 both managed to return and settled in Dnipropetrovsk where they got married.

On November 5, 1968, he committed suicide by self-immolation at Khreshchatyk, Kiev in protest against Soviet rule and its colonial occupation of Ukraine. Before his death, Makukh shout 'Long live a free Ukraine!' On 6 November 1968 a prosecutor office of the Leninsky District of Kiev city opened a criminal case of suicide, the outcome of which stays unknown.