READERS of a certain age might remember the emergence, in the 1990s, of an indie-rock/folk band called The Ukrainians. Led by Anglo-Ukrainian musician Peter Solowka, the group – which released its first, eponymous album in 1991 – was an off-shoot of popular indie band The Wedding Present.
The first musicians ever to fuse Ukrainian folk tunes with western rock music, The Ukrainians have built up a strong following with albums such as Diaspora and (a brilliantly-titled collection of Sex Pistols covers) Never Mind the Cossacks – Here’s The Ukrainians. Renowned for their joyful, often raucous live shows, the band has responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine with a series of benefit gigs to raise money for refugees from the war.
When I caught up with Solowka recently, he was still in something of a state of disbelief about what is happening to the homeland of his father, Ivan. He was, he says, “like a lot of people” in doubt that Putin would actually invade Ukraine.
“You just think it’s posturing and pressure,” he continues. He “never once believed” that Russia would attempt to take the entire country, complete with a siege of the capital, Kyiv.
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“For the first two days, I couldn’t believe it was happening,” he remembers. Although born in the north of England, Solowka feels his Ukrainian heritage very deeply.
“You grow up as a kid being told by your community that Ukraine’s a country. It’s different from being Russian, it’s different from being Polish. You grow up with the Ukrainian language and customs.”
Ivan, grew up as a Ukrainian in a region of eastern Poland that would become Soviet Ukrainian territory in the aftermath of the Second World War. Following the Nazi occupation of Poland, he was taken to Germany, aged just 16, to work for Hitler’s war economy.
In 1948, when Ivan was in his early-20s, he moved to England to work in a cotton mill. He could have returned home to Ukraine, but he was, Peter says, “very pragmatic. He said, ‘in my little village, I would have spent my time just looking after sheep on a hill’.”
Growing up in the Ukrainian community in the north of England during the era of the Soviet Union, Peter remembers people saying, “one day we’ll have our own country”. When, in 1990, Ukraine became an independent nation from the teetering USSR, people in his community were, he remembers, “just so happy”.
The fact that Putin’s invasion is attempting to roll back that independence a mere 32 years after it was achieved only adds to the outrage that Solowka feels about the war. Watching the tragedy unfold in the country of his father’s birth, the musician found himself asking what he could do.
“I’m not a fighting person,” he comments. “I’ve never used violence. If you’re a musician, the only thing you can use is music, isn’t it?”
And use their music is what he and The Ukrainians have done. They’ve played a series of benefit gigs in various towns and cities, all of them raising money to assist Ukrainian refugees.
The first show, in Leeds, was only a week after the war started.
“It was very emotional,” Solowka remembers. “I spent most of the gig just crying,” he says. “I wasn’t the only one, the audience were doing it, too.”
The benefit shows have raised tens of thousands of pounds for Ukrainian refugees. The band supports the Disasters Emergency Committee’s Ukraine Appeal, but they were also keen, early in the conflict, to get aid directly to the refugees.
In West Yorkshire, where Solowka lives, the Ukrainian community and its supporters found their own way of getting material over as quickly as possible.
“We found a couple of builders in Leeds,” the musician explains. “They live next to the Ukrainian Club. They use their vans to take donations.
“They’re absolutely brilliant,” he continues. “Just a couple of builders in vans, driving all the way across Europe and dropping off donations at the Polish-Ukrainian border.
“When they first got there, they asked the medical staff ‘what do you need?’. They came back to England, got the medical supplies that were needed, then they drove back again.”
The medical needs of refugees often require “really simple stuff”, says Solowka. Often, he explains, people are coming across the border having walked long distances in completely inappropriate footwear.
“They’ve got blisters that can get infected. So, the medics are asking for plasters and antiseptic cream.”
Then, of course, there are shortages of slightly more expensive, essential pieces of medical equipment, such as defibrillators. Many refugees, especially elderly people, are crossing into Poland after very arduous journeys, and are at risk of heart attacks.
The Leeds builders took a defibrillator out to the volunteer medics working on the border. Solowka is pleased that The Ukrainians’ charity performances have raised money for such life-saving items.
A LONG-STANDING socialist, Solowka was a strong supporter of Jeremy Corbyn during his time as leader of the Labour Party. Active in support of the miners during the Great Strike of 1984-85, solidarity comes to him instinctively.
He is somewhat sceptical when it comes to the proclamations of support for the people of Ukraine from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UK Tory government.
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“The language is that they are welcoming Ukrainian refugees. In essence, however, so few have come. Meanwhile, in Poland, millions of people are sleeping in churches and school halls, wondering where they’re going to go.”
Solowka’s criticism is certainly supported by the facts. Whereas countries across the European Union waived visa restrictions for those fleeing Ukraine, the UK government has kept visa requirements in place. As of April 8, only 12,000 refugees from Putin’s war had been resettled in Britain.
It seems that Solowka and The Ukrainians are right to put their faith, not in the Johnson administration, but in grassroots volunteers (like the two builders from Leeds) and, of course, in the power of their music.
For more information about The Ukrainians and their charity work for Ukrainian refugees, visit: the-ukrainians.com
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