What is known about Vasyl Stus, who will appear on the new 2,000-hryvnia banknote
In the fall of 2026, Ukraine will put into circulation a new 2,000-hryvnia banknote featuring a portrait of Ukrainian poet, human rights activist, and dissident Vasyl Stus. His name has become a symbol of the struggle for freedom, human rights, and Ukraine’s independence.
Vasyl Stus was born in 1938 in the Vinnytsia region and spent his childhood and youth in Donetsk. After completing his education, he worked as a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature and later served his mandatory military service in the Urals. It was during this time that Stus began actively writing poetry and translating works by foreign authors. He later became one of the most prominent representatives of the “Sixties Generation,” actively speaking out against political repression in the USSR, defending human rights, and serving as a member of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group.
In 1965, Stus joined a protest against the arrests of Ukrainian intellectuals during the premiere of the film *Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors* at the “Ukraine” movie theater in Kyiv, after which he faced persecution. The poet was arrested twice. In 1980, he was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp and five years of exile.
On the night of September 4, 1985, Vasyl Stus died in solitary confinement at the “Perm-36” camp after going on a dry hunger strike. The official cause of death was listed as cardiac arrest, but human rights activists and researchers believe it was the result of brutal treatment while in custody.
The poet was buried without his family present. It was not until 1989 that he was reburied at the Baikove Cemetery in Kyiv alongside his comrades Yuriy Lytvyn and Oleksa Tykhyi.
In 1990, Vasyl Stus was posthumously rehabilitated; in 1991, he was awarded the Shevchenko Prize; and in 2005, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine. Today, he is considered one of the main symbols of Ukrainian resistance to the totalitarian regime and the struggle for freedom.
Source: RBC-Ukraine.
As a reminder, a memorial stele will be unveiled in Lviv to mark the second anniversary of the death of linguist, civic activist, and political figure Iryna Farion. It will be located on Tomáš Masaryk Street—at the spot where Farion was fatally wounded.
