Several hundred people, including many Ukrainians, gathered on Dam Square this afternoon to make a statement against the war in Ukraine. During the meeting, various Ukrainian musicians who also fled the war themselves performed.
“They cannot be silent. Their soul hurts a lot and what artists do when their soul hurts is singing and performing,” says Oleksandr Tomashchuk of the Ukrainian foundation in the Netherlands. “That’s why we give them space to perform and also to cheer our people up.”
Among them is an Ethope-Ukrainian band. “We are real victims,” says one of the band members. “We saw it with our own eyes. We had to escape. We can’t keep quiet when you see what’s happening. We thought we’d fix up now that we’re safe, but we can’t.” She continues: “They are killing our people. Innocent civilians.”
“Our peaceful life was destroyed in one day,” says a woman from Kiev. “In the same kind of city as this, a capital in Europe. We want the world to support and help us, because there are millions of people there.”