Ukrainian army fights Russia from Indy with 'a weapon of another type'

The Cultural Forces are armed with violins and banduras, a traditional stringed instrument, but they belong to more than an orchestra. They are also soldiers of the Ukrainian army, in a branch that does not fight with weapons but with music.

Normally, the unit of about 80 people travels the front lines with their instruments, playing for the soldiers and boosting morale.

Today, five of them, along with U.S.-based singers and staff, are touring the United States to thank American taxpayers for contributing to the aid sent to Ukraine this spring. This weekend, the troupe will perform multiple times and at numerous venues in Indianapolis to raise awareness about the war in their country.

“It’s a weapon of a different kind,” Valery Shyrokov, Cultural Force media spokesperson, said earlier this week in a Zoom interview as the group traveled from Chicago to Milwaukee on their bus of travel. “The musician in the trench has the value of a soldier armed with a rifle, but being able to perform in front of thousands of people is also a weapon.”

Why use music as a weapon?

The goal of Cultural Forces is not only to boost morale or thank Americans, but also to highlight Ukrainian culture and music.

“We want to present the depth of Ukrainian culture and also prevent the death of Ukrainian culture,” Shyrokov said.

On the front lines, the band plays in small, crowded venues, often in civilian buildings reinforced with sandbags, said Taras Stoliar, who was a professional musician before enlisting as a reconnaissance agent.

In peacetime, Stoliar had little difficulty deciding what to play when he played. Today, however, it's difficult to find the right music to play for soldiers, Stoliar said.

“When I was a musician, I was just trying to make people happy or smile,” Stoliar said. “I can really help our comrades find their reasons for living, regain their memories or simply enter into imagination or other worlds while I play.”

The group usually plays a program of historical ballads and pop songs. They also play songs by Queen, Imagine Dragons and Metallica, as well as the Ukrainian folk song known in the United States as Carol of the Bells. Yes, the Carol of the Bells which is played every Christmas.

Preserving Ukrainian culture

The Stoliar bandura has 62 strings and resembles a lute with a bright, lilting sound, somewhere between a harp and a harpsichord. For Ukrainians, the bandura is more than just an instrument, embodying the art, culture, soul and spirit of the country, Shyrokov said. It is for this reason that the oppressors of Ukraine have repeatedly tried to eradicate it.

When Ukraine declared independence in 1918, the Bolsheviks began executing bandura players across the country. The following year, a group of traditional Ukrainian musicians began a tour of Western Europe. In 1922, the group played at Carnegie Hall and performed an old Ukrainian song called “Shchedryk”, about a nightingale singing at New Year's Eve. The song would later be adapted for the United States, with English lyrics and renamed Carol of the Bells .

Today, the Cultural Forces are trying to combat Russia's war of disinformation against its Eastern European neighbor.

Iryna Bondar, who has lived in the United States since 2015, said many people of her generation grew up with Russian “icons,” like some YouTubers and movie stars, rather than Ukrainian icons due to suppression. of Ukrainian television by Russia. Today, Russian bot accounts are flooding Ukrainian social media, spreading messages like: “Americans don’t care about Ukraine.” All these efforts are aimed at eroding Ukrainian national identity, said Bondar, a board member of the Indiana Ukraine Society.

“They have constantly insisted on their imperial narrative that we are not a real nation and that we do not have our own culture,” Bondar said.

Life during the war

On February 24, 2022, Stoliar's family woke up to the sirens of an air raid in kyiv around 5 a.m. He drove his wife, children and their hamster to his in-laws' house outside the city, then returned to kyiv alone. After waiting in line for six hours, he enlisted.

Stoliar's wife and two children are still in Ukraine. Every day he receives notifications of missile threats.

“There were four yesterday,” he said, scrolling through his phone.

While Stoliar fights in the Cultural Forces, his family hides in underground shelters or faces regular power outages. He said they could often hear the missiles.

Meanwhile, Bondar and her family, who still live in Ukraine, switched from Russian to Ukrainian.

The first two months of the war were “excruciating,” she said. Several members of Bondar's family went to fight at the front.

When she calls her family to catch up, she says they no longer discuss long-term plans for the future.

“People try to do things and be active and continue to work, create art, but there are constantly friends and family members dying and you never know who will be next ” Bondar said.

Reception in the United States

Shyrokov said that everywhere they go in uniform in the United States, people pay for their meals and thank them for their service.

“If there was no war in my country, I would be happy to tour here,” he said.

This tour ends June 30, but Cultural Forces will return to the United States in August to tour the South Coast and West Coast.

Shyrokov said he had a message for those who oppose sending aid to Ukraine.

“In the United States, there is a general understanding that the United States could become a target,” Shyrokov said. “These are the values ​​that America has supported for many years in history, some people have forgotten how much sweat, how much sweat has been poured into these values ​​in America.”

How to Hear the Cultural Forces

The cultural forces will perform Friday at 5:30 p.m. at Lugar Plaza, 200 E. Washington St. On Saturday, they will play at 8 a.m. at the Broad Ripple Farmers Market, 6001 N. Rural St., at 1 p.m. at the Indianapolis ArtsGarden and at 6:30 p.m. at the Hotel de town of Woodruff Place.

Alex Haddon is a Pulliam Scholar. You can email him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Ukrainian military cultural forces tour in Indy