Ukrainian opera singer Yurii Ivaskevych traded his tuxedo for military uniform to fight the Russian invasion. When he lost his leg in a mine explosion last year, music called to him again.
Ivaskevych, 51, is a member of the Cultural Forces, a recently created Ukrainian military unit consisting of professional musicians who perform for soldiers on the front lines to lift their spirits and relieve them, however briefly, of the horrors of war.
“With us, they can remember their past lives, even for an hour – something good, some positive emotions,” Ivaskevych, whose military call sign is Pavarotti, told AFP in an interview.
“They feel needed, they feel like they haven’t been dispatched and forgotten.”
This week, Cultural Forces launched a tour across the United States to thank Americans for their support of Ukraine’s war effort and remind them of the crucial need for aid despite political infighting.
Last month, US lawmakers approved a long-awaited $61 billion military aid package for Kiev after months of wrangling in Congress as Ukrainian forces suffered battlefield setbacks due to shortages of ammunition and financing.
“We are grateful to America, to the American people for thinking of us, for supporting us,” said Mykolai Sierga, founder of Cultural Forces. “It is a struggle between good and evil, between authoritarian power and humanity.”
At his first concert in Washington earlier this week, Ivaskevych, wearing khaki shorts that revealed his prosthetic leg, sang Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and the classic Neapolitan piece “O Sole Mio.”
The 40-day trip will take Cultural Forces to New York, Chicago, Dallas and other US cities.
In addition to Ivaskevych and Sierga, the band includes a bandura player, a Ukrainian folk string instrument player, a jazz pianist and a celebrated violinist-turned-grenade launcher who joined the unit after losing an eye in combat.
– Take the weight off your shoulders –
Before the invasion, Sierga, 35, was the star of a popular Russian television travel show, broadcast in both Ukraine and Russia.
“That day I understood that I am Ukrainian,” Sierga said.
Sierga joined the army on the second day of the war and ended up in an infantry brigade.
He soon realized that the trauma of war was causing many soldiers insomnia. He found a guitar and started singing for them. It helped, and soon he was invited to perform in other military units.
Today the Cultural Forces are an official unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, consisting of around 80 professional artists, most with combat experience.
They serve for frontline forces, in military hospitals, as well as for military spouses and children. They perform around 20 shows a day across Ukraine.
“Sometimes we just come and listen,” Sierga said. “It helps take some of the weight off their shoulders and put it on our shoulders and then they can breathe.”
– ‘Then help us’ –
In July last year, Ivaskevych was returning to his infantry unit when he stepped on a Russian mine.
His comrade took him to safety as he screamed in pain. His leg was amputated above the knee.
While Ivaskevych was recovering in hospital, a group of musicians from the Cultural Forces appeared on his ward and his fate was sealed.
Today, his music brings comfort to fellow soldiers on the front lines.
“There’s anger in their eyes, they’re tired, they’re far from home… It’s a war,” Ivaskevych said. But after hearing him sing, “his eyes light up.”
In recent weeks, Russian troops have made gains in northeastern Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky has complained that the West has been too slow to make decisions and allocate aid, and the delays are costing lives.
If Russia is not stopped, Ivaskevych wondered, “What will happen to the freedom that Americans and American officials defend so much?”
“The people of Ukraine have made their choice,” he said. “Then help us.”
md/acb
