Partying with the Army

Cultural Forces describe themselves on their website as “an association of servicemen working to improve the moral, cultural and educational level, and motivation of soldiers'“. One of the ways they do this is by holding concerts in places like hospitals. Back in April, I got invited along to one by Ivanna the tireless volunteer. Here’s an excerpt from their set, a song called ‘Pikhota (Infantry)’:

Infantry
Coffee, then to the battle, we go onward!
We carry machine guns on our shoulders
The enemy is very close, we all know it
Our hands are calloused, our eyes fiery.
Infantry
Our eyes are fiery!
I used to be a car mechanic, now I'm a soldier
My brothers-in-arms all have family too
We dig trenches, we strike the enemy
We are like a wolf pack, guardians of the borders
Infantry
Our company goes into battle!
We will triumph in the forest and on the steppe
We can do anything!
Hail the ZSU [Armed Forces of Ukraine]
We stand shoulder to shoulder, sisters and brothers!
We will force the enemy from our country.
Infantry
Our company goes into battle!

The musicians didn’t have time for an interview, as they were off to the trenches again, but I swapped contact details with one of them so that may be forthcoming should I and they have time.

After the music, Ivanna and her colleague Yaroslav the surgeon laid out the spread provided by local volunteers: cutlets, mashed potatoes, borscht and pastries. Readers may be familiar with Ivanna and her story from last autumn’s very personal interview.

You were already tired when I was here five months ago…

Ivanna: I said I was going to rest a bit, but I always say that and the day never comes. You plan, and you think after you’ve done that you will rest, but it doesn’t happen. There’s no time, you have to work. Because every day a serviceman has the same needs: he gets up in the morning, washes, brushes his teeth, and he needs everything for that. He needs accommodation. Repairs. Or he might change location. And we have to collect things, transport them. Or there’s incoming and everything is destroyed and you have to call around the volunteers and say: we need an Ecoflow, we need an outdoor shower, and so on and so on.

You work every day because it’s always necessary. And every day you tell people that the lads need this, that and the other, because in one place a drone destroyed it, in another place a flying bomb did it, and so on. Or a karrimat, or a sleeping bag, or someone was driving a car and it was destroyed.

As for groceries, every day people need to eat, to drink and that’s on top of the rest. And the roads are getting worse, you’ve seen that on your way here. Cars break down and it’s dangerous, there are a lot of drones on the highway and in the city, destroying cars, people and military equipment. Because the front is getting closer and closer, a lot of units have to leave, especially the rear units.

I’m not a military strategist but I see a lot of what goes on here and I always ask myself what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month. And I look back on yesterday, last week, last month.

The Russians are not 20km away [from Kramatorsk] any more. It’s 12km to the front, or even closer. There are a lot of children in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk… We go to bed, and there’s massive shelling. A glide bomb flies in, and the Russians calculate the time when the ambulance will arrive, then when they start to rescue people from under the rubble; and another bomb hits. Again and again.

It’s terrible that the world doesn’t understand this evil needs to be destroyed, that they allow it. [The defeat of Russia] would be a lesson for the whole world: if you live badly, if you do evil, you will be destroyed.

I couldn’t have imagined four months ago that things would be as the are now – this stupid [i.e. war in the Middle East, and other geopolitical developments]. Every country seems to be at war. Russia has shown that you can do what you like: deport people, kill them. Now it’s happening all over the planet.

That interview snippet is from four months ago. The situation in Kramatorsk has significantly worsened; some of my friends, interviewees and contacts have now left, or are in the process of leaving. I am returning to Ukraine at the end of August and wherever I go I will bring you as many honest stories as I can.

In the meantime, I’m giving a free talk in Sleaford, UK on 20 August. You can get a free ticket here. Thanks to The Community Lab for booking the event and creating the graphic!