At the literary evening dedicated to the 70th anniversary of Borys Oliynyk, President of Ukraine Victor Yushchenko decorated him with the Order of State, conferring the Hero of Ukraine title on this prominent poet and public figure.

Oliynyk was decorated for “his self-denying service to Ukraine, great contribution to preservation of the national and spiritual culture and the role he played to promote Ukraine internationally.”

Victor Yushchenko personally congratulated Oliynyk at the Ukraina Art Palace.

“You are a great poet, a wise person, a friend and a master of the nation. Today, along with many Ukrainians, I would like to thank you for your poetry,” he said.

The Head of State thanked him for serving Ukraine and the nation.

“Ukraine has not perished yet, having such sons as Borys Oliynyk,” he added. “You have conquered the literary Parnassus and the political Olympus. I am deeply convinced that in the past fifteen years there has not been any political event at which you did not speak as a citizen or a poet.”

Yushchenko noted that Oliynyk’s public statements always concerned pressing and socially disturbing issues.

The Head of State stressed that he had been particularly impressed by Oliynyk’s speech on the 1932-33 Genocide Famine, which he delivered a few years ago at Verkhovna Rada.

“I am sure millions of Ukrainians remember your speech. That was a courageous deed,” he said.

Speaking about the Orange Revolution, the President also stressed that Oliynyk’s appearance in Kiev’s Independence Square, the Maydan, was “a deed of a poet and a patriot

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