Valery Myroshnichenko gave up his profession as a musician because of the great invasion of Russia. However, instruments have found use on the front.
Ukrainian soldier Valery Myroshnichenko sings a Ukrainian song in Finnish in the video.
The video was made in a trench on the eastern front near Bahmut in June. The song sung by Myroshnichenko is “Oi u Luzi chervona kalyna”, and it could be translated like this: “In the meadow, a red dog’s hair is sleeping”.
The work is special for Ukrainians. Along with the national anthem, it is one of the most important songs and spirit lifters.
The song became mega-popular in Ukraine soon after the full-scale invasion of Russia began, and numerous new arrangements have been made of it. The British band Pink Floyd also covered the song own version.
Myroshnichenko says that he got the idea to learn the song in different languages after seeing a popular singer perform the same song in three different languages in Germany.
– I thought that I would learn the same thing, and I would learn the Polish version in addition to these. Then I heard that help was also coming from Finland, and I decided to learn the song in Finnish as well, he tells by phone.
Myroshnichenko says that the song in different languages is a kind of thanks to all those who have helped Ukraine and Ukrainians during the war.
Myroshnichenko is a horn player by civilian profession and played in a symphony orchestra in Kyiv for 17 years.
He woke up on the first night of the war to the sounds of Russian helicopters and bombs because he lived next to an airport near Kiev. On the same day, he was already in the ranks of the Ukrainian army.
At the beginning of the war, in the spring and winter of 2022, Myroshnichenko ended up fighting in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kiev, where the fiercest battles of the early months of the war took place.
– When we got through Irpin, the journalists asked me to play something. And somehow, after that, the guitar and French horn have gone with me, he says.
Myrošničen says that he does not have children because “art has been my life”. But now all thoughts are at war, because every day could be the last.
– The question is whether you will live until morning or not. The realities here are quite different.
“I want to end the war in Sevastopol and sing a victory song there”
Myroshnichenko tells how he has been with his company in several bad places. I especially remember the trip from Irpin to Kyiv, when he gave a ride to a wounded soldier to the hospital.
– Everything around was a sea of fire. Everywhere you looked, there was the same red glow. Tens of kilometers in each direction.
Later, Myroshnichenko himself lost his life in a Russian missile strike on the Eastern Front. The attack happened on his birthday, December 1.
– It so happened that I got one more birthday. Eight or nine meters away there was an explosion. Fortunately, I had moved away from the window. I flew towards the wall and the bricks fell on me. The beam saved my life. I was dug out of the ruins, Myroshnichenko says with a laugh.
Myroshnichenko says that he witnessed the death of many soldiers by his side. Especially in the early part of the war, his company suffered heavy losses. However, the mood of Ukrainians is strong, Myroshnichenko says.
– We know exactly that we will win. There is no such possibility that Russia would win.
When the war ends one day, he plans to perhaps return to the orchestra and continue playing. A trip to Poland is also planned. There, you could thank aid workers face to face, Myroshnichenko envisions.
At the moment, however, the dreams are related to something else.
– My dream is to end the war in Sevastopol in Crimea and sing a victory song there. The occupation has continued for practically 300 years. This is here now.