“In order to survive, we must be ourselves. There is a battle to the death for the existence of the Ukrainian nation and state.” Interview

“Music has turned into another means of struggle,” Andrii Khlyvnyuk, a musician, leader of the Boombox band, and a volunteer, says in an interview with Voice of America.

Within the framework of only one charity tour in North America, Hlyvnyuk and his team managed to collect more than $120 thousand, and $93,245 – due to the auctions they organize during the performances. Among the sold lots are sleeves, flags with autographs, patriotic T-shirts, an exclusive picture with the signature of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny.

From the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, Khlyvniuk almost immediately joined the defense of Kyiv and Ukraine. Now he continues his service in the patrol police unit as an attack drone pilot.

During his stay in New York, Andrii Khlyvnyuk told Irina Solomko in an interview about how the last year has changed him, why he does not write songs and when, in his opinion, there will be victory.

Iryna Solomko, Voice of America correspondent: Andrii, it’s already been a year since you sang the song “Oh in the meadow red viburnum”, in fact, you gave it a second breath and turned it into a resistance anthem. How did this idea come about?

Andrii Khlyvniuk, musician, volunteer: It was impromptu, we were just passing by, because not far from us was the point of permanent deployment of the unit, which is called “Sofia”. This is a volunteer unit to reinforce the fire support of the patrol police of Kyiv at that time. A certain number of volunteers united in a unit, received weapons and returned from work. And such an impromptu came out. It’s cool that he became one of the symbols of resistance in the race for Ukrainian statehood. And that’s why…

A lot of different events happened during the year. The person who sings this song in the square and the person who is now giving this interview are slightly different people.

I.S.: I was told that you start every concert, at least in America, with this song.

AH.: In addition to our main work as soldiers of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, everyone has their own profession. The war has been going on for nine years. But for me and many of my brothers, it started a year ago. When you directly participate in the tasks that are in front of you. And I believe that work by profession is no less important, especially in the media field, because the world should know about this struggle. A year has passed, but this message is still very important.

I.S.: Do foreigners sing along to “Kalina” at concerts?

AH.: I do not know maybe. From the videos that my friends send me, I see that it resonates as a symbol of struggle in many countries of the world.

IS: Going back to what you said, how has this year changed you?

AH.: He almost completely knocked me out of the music world. During this year, I did not record a single album, did not shoot a music video. We released the song “Truth” together with Zhadan, recorded even before the great invasion. And now we are preparing a release in the original version already with the edited video that we made at the beginning of the war. These are documentary shots taken by the Hospitallers during their work. In order to draw attention to this fund, which, in my opinion, is extremely important and needs attention.

That is, music has turned into another means of struggle. It stopped being show business and my main job. And for a year now, I have been working exclusively as a patrol police officer. At first, we were engaged in humanitarian missions, and now we conduct combat operations as the crew of an attack drone.

Likewise, my foundation, which was organized during this great invasion, is engaged in raising funds for such unmanned vehicles, retraining crews on the training ground and combat exits. Now this is my main job.

And when there is time, and my management will prepare a tour for us in one to three months, we also have the luxury of going abroad and raising funds for what the unit needs.

I.S.: How much money have you managed to collect during this time?

AH.: For the Foundation – half a million dollars. And another half a million dollars were brought in by royalties from the performance of the song “Kalyna”. 99% thanks to Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour and his version of this song.

I.S.: How did this collaboration come about?

AH.: There are simply people, famous and not so musicians, for whom borders do not exist.

I.S.: What do you see in the war zone, what do the guys tell you?

AH.: Combat is very strong, strong elevation. It is in our blood. Ukrainian men and women are warriors. War is the same life of people, only with greater danger. These are the same people only in green. For the most part, I meet very strong-minded and highly motivated people who did not hide, although many could easily live abroad. But they took up arms and are doing hard work.

I.S.: You said that you haven’t written any new songs during this time. Didn’t they write?

AH.: There’s a bit of sketching on the table, but it’s not full-on song and lyric writing and production work. There is no time for all this.

I.S.: If we talk about your songs, Russian-language ones were very popular among them. You don’t really sing them now, do you?

AH.: I’m just disgusted. This is not a principled position. Our enemy uses language as a weapon. To date, the regions most affected by this war have been unprepared for the enemy’s use of language as a weapon. The resistance there could be much stronger. And while the army got there, unfortunately, terrible war crimes took place.

The Russian language will not disappear from the face of the planet. Its culture will exist. This is a paradox described in science, which is called “prosthetic nationalism”. We have to be ourselves in order to survive. We can no longer pretend to be cosmopolitans, anyone else. Especially at a time when there is an arms race and a battle to the death for the existence of the Ukrainian nation and state.

I.S.: You had many Russian-speaking supporters. Russians still go to your concerts in the USA. You wrote appeals to them and explained what was happening. Do you think they heard you?

AH.: I do not care. Those who wanted to hear, those who could not hear, did not hear, this is the choice of people, and I cannot influence or change them. Whoever wants to believe Russian propaganda, let him believe it. Who does not want – understands everything.

I.S.: And what do you think about the fact that those Ukrainian artists who went to Russia quickly changed their shoes.

AH.: I don’t have time to think about such things. This is their life and their choice.

I.S.: I agree that it is dangerous. I asked this question to many artists, and I did not get a clear position from any of them. Do you have this kind of trade union solidarity?

AH.: Here the question is different. And this applies to all people who were employed. There is the state of Ukraine and its laws. Whoever violated them is a criminal. Let’s proceed from general legal norms. And we leave these moral and ethical norms at home. It is unethical to bring such things to the media.

I.S.: The victory of the documentary film “Navalny” at the Oscars showed that the world probably wants to believe in the existence of “good Russians”.

AH.: I did not watch the movie, maybe there is a brilliant movie. Because I still thought that the Oscars were about creativity. You should not look for “good Russians”, but they exist. There were “good Germans” in Nazi Germany, there were even mutinies. The same operation “Valkyrie”. But I would be a “couch expert” if I started talking about it.

I.S.: You know the situation in the war zone. The authorities have repeatedly said that the war will end with Ukraine’s victory this year. Can Ukraine achieve this?

AH.: These are not government statements. It is the faith of people who do everything in their power to make victory happen. This is the motivation and belief of people. Of course, I want this victory to happen tomorrow. It’s just a little annoying when this victory seems to have already happened on TV. No. Hard battles are fought not for life, but for death. And they continue. And there is no end or end to this yet. Victory will come, now or in a hundred years. This is understandable, because here it is a struggle between good and evil. It always ends with the victory of good. But when it will happen… I don’t know, I’m not Wang’s grandmother.