Gthere U2 they remind us that music, when it is not afraid to get dirty with reality, can become an act of testimony and resistance. With the EP Days of Ash, six tracks released at the end of February, the Irish band go back to doing what you do best: use songs to talk about the world, take a position and send a message. Songs “impatient to get out”, as he defined them GoodWhy they arise from the present and speak to the present. Among these, Yours Eternally it is the beating heart of the project. The song – sung by Good And The Edge together with Ed Sheeran and the Ukrainian musician turned soldier Taras Topolia – is accompanied by a 4 and a half minute short film directed by Ukrainian director Ilya Mikhaylus. The video – released within fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – it is part of a larger documentary that tells the story the sacrifices, daily life and fight for freedom of the 40,000 soldiers of the Khartiya Corps, on the front line in the region Kharkiv.
The everyday life of war: the short film by Ilya Mikhaylus
Shot at the front in December 2025next to the soldiers of the Khartiya Corps, the short follows the daily life of Alina and her comrades. Not poster heroes, but people: tired faces waiting, living their daily lives in contact with death trying to normalize it. They cook together, joke, wash, gather around a fire with a guitar. Normal gestures within a life turned upside down by war. The full documentary will arrive at the end of 2026but this fragment is enough to clarify the direction: restore dignity and humanity to these people. «For four years Ukraine has resisted the large-scale Russian invasion, and the soldiers of the Khartiya Corps are among the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians defending their homeland» – explained the director – «In this short film, and in the next full documentary, we try to show the beating heart of these incredible men and women, the struggles and sacrifices they make every day for the most sacred thing on this planet: freedom».
The text of Yours Eternally: the words of a soldier at the front
«If you have the chance to laugh, laugh at me / If you have the chance to hope, it’s a duty». The images of Ilya Mikhaylus they dialogue with the song: the text is a sort of letter written by a soldier on duty. It was who inspired him Taras Topolia. Bono and The Edge met him in 2022 in a Kiev metro station thanks to Ed Sheeran. The band had come to play at the invitation of Volodymyr Zelensky. The text revolves around a word indicated by Taras: «Volya», perfect synthesis of the Ukrainian character, which means together freedom and will. Two inseparable forces that at the end of the song sound like a mantra, almost a secular prayer. The intertwining of the voices of Bono, Ed Sheeran and Topolia is not just a musical choice, but a symbolic gesture of union between different worlds who recognize themselves in the same cause: defend human dignity.
Days of Ash: a manifesto against the war and violence of our times
Days of Ash it’s not a concept album about war, but a mosaic of stories that speak of broken lives, of civil resistance, of violated dignity. The songs tell of mothers, fathers, teenagers deprived of their rights. American Obituary it is a cry of denunciation against Trump and the actions ofICE in America. Song of the Future is a hymn to freedom through the history of Sarinaone young Iranian student killed for protesting against the regime. One Life At A Time it was written for Awdah Hathaleen, Palestinian father of three killed in West Bank. There is also space for poetry: one track rereads verses by Yehuda AmichaiIsraeli poet who speaks of peace between peoples. «We believe in a world where borders are not erased by force – said The Edge – where culture, language and memory are not silenced by fear. In which the dignity of a people is non-negotiable. This belief is not temporary. It’s not a political fad. It is the ground on which we stand. And we stand together».
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
