Published
Fri, Mar 25, 2022, 11:40
- We spoke to an anonymous DJ who is now serving in the Ukrainian military.
Russia's ongoing military invasion of Ukraine has left its rich electronic music community in tatters, with many artists, promoters, club owners and staff forced to flee the country.
The latest dispatch is from an anonymous DJ who is now serving in the Ukrainian military. Scroll down for dispatches from the likes of Nastia, Berghain resident Etapp Kyle and Yevhenii Skrypnyk, event manager and cofounder of Sloviansk-based party crew Shum.Rave.
All the comments and answers have been edited for length and clarity. We will update this piece as we speak to more people.
This roundup piece includes various ways to help the situation in Ukraine, plus some useful resources and messages of solidarity.
Last updated: 11:15 AM GMT, March 25th
Anonymous DJ
From DJing to digging trenches
I'm a DJ and I play deconstructed club. It's a hard, post-colonial approach to electronic dance music. But I want to stay anonymous for our safety. I volunteered to join the army three weeks ago. This is the first time in my life that I have done this kind of thing. I've been doing a lot of stuff: digging trenches and fortifications, working as a watchman and dealing with refugees. There were lots of them, especially from Sumy.
I work between various regions of Ukraine. We're obliged to examine refugees' documents, passports, registration and luggage. A few guys from the police and military regulate this flow. We prioritise families with children and medical supplies. If there's a car with four men, they will have a more strict examination.
The Russian army personnel are using our roads. And the same roads are being used by refugees, volunteers and by all Ukrainian citizens who try to continue living their lives, such as farmers with their pigs and cows. I'm now in a rural part of the region, but I prefer not to say exactly where.
Rockets in Kharkiv
My father is from Congo and my mother was part-Armenian and part-Russian. I come from the Ukrainian region of Kharkiv. It's a university student place, so there are thousands of Arab, African, and Chinese people there. There are also people from the Vietnamese diaspora.
My colleagues in the armed forces have complimented my Ukrainian language. They were amazed because Kharkiv is considered a mostly Russian-speaking region. Earlier today, just as you tried to call, we had a rocket alert. It's a common thing here. Our air service will warn us when they see something coming. If you hear the siren, you have to hide. If you hear the rocket, you may be seriously damaged and will probably be baked.
I was more scared on the first day when I had to evacuate my wife, sister and dog from Kharkiv. There were no sounds of sirens at all. Our city siren system was deactivated that day. We heard only the sounds of explosions, air strikes and air defence. It's something like a muffled thunder or bass drone, more through the ground than through the air.
When I came to get them, Kharkiv airport had been bombed. It's about seven KM from the railway station. Sounds of explosions were heard from the airport direction but we didn't really know the source. My family had to hide in the metro station. People were inside the trains too. At this point I had been separated from my family and that was the scariest thing.
Rescuing my dog
When we found each other we tried to get a taxi. It usually costs £5 for this journey but the driver was charging £25. That was on the first day, but I don't know how it is there now. We had to arrange for volunteers to collect my dog from our home in Kharkiv. I gave volunteers permission to break into my place to fetch him through the window, which is probably still open.
My mother died this winter and we have her remains in an urn at our house in Kharkiv. We don't know what's happening or when we can fetch them. I will stay with the army now until victory.
Yevhenii Skrypnyk (Shum.Rave cofounder)
Growing up in Donbas
I'm from the city of Sloviansk. It was taken by Russians in 2014. We have been in a war for eight years but some people think it started only last month.
We're six people in Shum Rave. All of us are in our early 20s. We started to throw parties in 2019 to bring some kind of happiness to Sloviansk because there was no nightlife here or opportunity for young people to spend time together. We wanted to change stereotypes that Sloviansk and Donbass people are Russia supporters and have no culture.
Local DJs like Crematorium, DarBojiy, Mark Panghoud, Podryzhanya and be_ca_di joined Shum Rave because they feel inspired that we're doing something nice in a post-war region.
Friends in danger
We planned to make a party in April with 50 percent local DJs from the Donbas region. But it was cancelled and now we're all split up in different parts of the country and Europe.
DJ JmDasha is one of our artists, too. She has just escaped from a big danger zone in Mariupol in a car with friends three days ago. They went to a small village 40 KM away near Berdiansk. But she is still not completely safe. There are Russian soldiers along the road from Mariupol to the nearest Ukrainian city so it's hard to evacuate from here.
Mariuipol was blocked and bombed. About 90 percent is totally destroyed and surrounded by Russians and rubble. It's a tragedy what is happening there. There are no green corridors, or opportunities to find food, water, electricity or connections. I know a lot of people with friends there that have been affected for the last two weeks and are searching for each other.
Helping the war effort
My family is in Sloviansk but I have been living in Kyiv for two years working as an IT freelancer and event manager. When the war started I was already in Kyiv but I was looking for an opportunity to go back to Sloviansk and stay with my parents and grandparents.
I live in Kyiv with my flatmate, a really close friend. So I'm not alone. I'm happy I'm not alone because it would be really hard to live alone in this kind of situation.
Staying here means I can help better because sometimes in Sloviansk there isn't always a good connection. This is critical when you are using online communications 100 percent of the time to help people find safe places to stay.
We are also hoping to collect money to buy some equipment. A friend in Poland is helping us to do this and sending equipment to Ukraine for our soldiers.
It's hard to know how to feel
My parents don't want to leave Sloviansk. My father said he spent his whole life building our family home, and he doesn't want to be chased from the city again.
It feels a little bit hard right now because it reminds us of 2014 when the war started. But now it's much bigger destruction. And this feeling that you lost your home and you could lose it again… It's hard to understand this, hard to know how to feel. The brain reacts. You think you are dreaming, and then hope everything will be okay.
There is no safe place in Ukraine right now. Because rockets can reach every part of Ukraine and we have seen this. The first task is to stay alive. And second is to help people as much as you can while they still have connections and electricity.
Every time I try to help people, I always find someone from the music events industry. Most days I stay home. I don't go outside because it's a bit scary and I don't have a car to move between different parts of the city. When we hear the alarm, we go to the bunker.
Explosions in Kyiv
Right now in Kyiv there are a lot of sirens, it's noisy. Recently, at 5 AM, there was a big boom near my place. We're in an old building and I feel the whole place shaking. It was like an earthquake and very scary. I felt my bed move. I haven't felt an earthquake before but I can imagine it would feel this way.
The shops are working in Kyiv, and they are near my house, so I am able to buy food. I manage to speak with my family everyday. Every morning I go online looking for people I am close with to make sure they are safe.
When will it end?
I don't think this will end by April, maybe by the end of summer. We feel unity with oppressed people in other parts of the world. We have been feeling it since 2014. It's always bad to have a war in your home country, in any country.
When this ends, Ukraine will be like a new good country and totally the best country in Europe. And when it ends in summer, you will be able to come to our party and spend time with us.
Nikita Kozachinsky (Module cofounder)
Nightlife workers become soldiers
I was in Germany a month ago and could have stayed there but I wanted to come back to Ukraine to be there for my people. And I made the choice to volunteer as a solider on the very first day of the war.
There are four people from Module in my squad. In total, about 12 people from our events community have joined the army. They are punters, resident drum & bass DJs like Sergey Thankee and workers from our venue. Two other people from our community also wanted to join but they weren't in good health so they are in reserve.
Just ten days ago we were planning to do the next festival in the summer. And we were just making the lineups, communicating with artists, making posters and our media strategy, but this happened and everything was cancelled.
We can't do any of it now but I hope if we win soon there will be a festival in September in Dnipro. And I hope the Russians don't destroy our new venue. But right now it's hard to talk about things like this when we have a war going on.
Training for war
We desperately need help and donations for medicine, equipment, body armours, helmets, transport, drones and things like this.
So far we have been building some defence structures around the city, training a lot and trying to collect helmets and protective gear. We patrol the streets around us.
But I am not a soldier. I used a gun to shoot for the first time 12 days ago. I don't have the training for this kind of crazy experience. And right now, we are listening for the sounds of Russian attacks.
We have Russian Kalashnikovs, machine guns from the Soviet Union and some rocket launchers, but we don't know how to use them, it's like the first time. We are being given some training with these things but not so much. On Tuesday, a volunteer from the US who is a medic gave us training in emergency aid so we can help someone if they are hurt.
Medical training is the main thing for us. We volunteers come from so many different backgrounds, some of us are businessmen, teachers, drivers. We haven't been in the army before but we have no choice. We have to be here. The first wave of Russians arrived and we are waiting for the second wave. They're not far away from Dnipro. They're in Zaporizhzhya and Kryvyi Rih. So they are on two sides of us.
Supporting our people
So far, we have been helping refugees with safe places to sleep. We find them beds, a roof. Today I was on kitchen duty and spent two hours standing outside keeping vigil.
We're not in the city, and at night, it's really dark, some people sleep with rifles. It's a really nervous situation here. These are hard times but I hope to stay alive and hope that we will be good.
My grandmother is too old to leave Ukraine and my mother doesn't want to leave without her so they have stayed in the country.
The people of Ukraine are helping each other, sharing their homes and food with each other. We already had a war for eight years before, so many people understand how to shoot. We will figure out like we did before and just support each other, staying strong.
Dreaming of freedom
Right now I dream about our freedom from this situation. But one-and-a-half million people have already left because the Russians destroyed a lot of cities with bombs and attacks.
Tomorrow, we will move from here to another place. It's on a hill where we can see all the things around us. We will build some defences there. My message to everyone is: stay strong. Support Ukraine.
Vadim Griboedov (MachineRoom)
I am 41 years old, my father is Ukrainian and my mother is Russian. I was born near Moscow, in the city of Beloomut, ironically the place where Russians deployed their anti-missile complex. My father was a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Union and later joined the Ukrainian Air Defence, so we moved from Russia to Kharkov in Ukraine in 1987 when I was seven years old.
Right now, I am in my apartment in the centre of Kyiv, next to the checkpoint. We will stay here. Last week, I observed Ukrainian forces disarming Russian saboteurs at a checkpoint, the explosion of bombs and rockets nearby; queues at shops and a lot of people in bomb shelters. A lot of volunteers have joined the civil defence. Despite the situation, there is no panic.
Every morning I wake up to read the news, call my friends and continue with my ashtanga yoga practice. It makes me sad to see the intimidation and helplessness of the humiliated Russian nation. I will never be able to understand these people—both military and civilian.
My family is with me in Kyiv right now though many have left. But the curfew means men cannot leave the country—only those with more than three children. This is necessary. Very few Russian friends have written to me with words of support. A few are calling on the Russians to take to the streets with protests. Most are just cowardly slaves.
I'm proud of how the world has united against terror. I receive many offers of help from all over the planet every day. Together we will win, there's no doubt about it. Everybody can donate to the country via Monobank for example, or help refugees in their countries.
Слава Україні!
Sergiy Vel (Closer cofounder)
Living underground
I was having my breakfast at my home when I heard the airstrikes smash into the TV broadcasting antenna. I could see the fire from my window.
Some of our resident artists left for holidays in January but they are very worried and are texting us every hour. At night, I sleep in a bomb shelter with about 20 families, including children. There's about 50 people there. We try to keep the women and children safe by keeping vigil through the night. Some people are making anti-tank fortifications.
The bomb shelters were built during the Second World War so we're using them now. They have toilets, hot water and tea. We only come up for food and each time we hear the sirens, we go back downstairs.
Community effort
I spent five days underground with my wife and daughter but I put them on a train yesterday so now they've gone to western Ukraine because it's safer for them there.
Many people are doing many great things to help the situation and our efforts to provide food from the big supermarkets is small in comparison. For example, venues like Atlas have been providing food for more than a thousand people every day.
The future
But we're looking to the future with optimistic eyes. There's been a lot of corruption and political problems in Ukraine so this war will change our country because it's bringing people together closer than before.
There is another world and another future coming. And I think we will legalise marijuana in Ukraine—I can see this happening and I believe it because our president is close to people, close to young people too, he understands their dreams. The old stupid situations will change.
We are free people here. We had two revolutions in the last ten years and we have a war now. People in Russia don't know what is happening in Ukraine. But they think they are helping us.
The support we are seeing from people around the world is so important to us. Everyday I receive phone calls from people everywhere. They say such great words and this means so much to us. Believe me when this whole thing is over we are going to have one big party at Closer.
Alisa Mullen (Closer PR)
Becoming a refugee overnight
It turns out that I'm now a refugee. At the moment I'm in Romania. Since the war started eight days ago my son and I have slept in five different places. On Friday we will already be in Berlin, where my friends have found us a separate apartment for the whole of March.
I really miss my spacious apartment in Kyiv near the cycle track. In my head, I constantly make a list of the things I used at home every day. The plants will wither, I had a lot of them. But I will definitely be back. I was never ready to emigrate, absolutely everything suited me in my Kyiv. Almost everyday we were meeting our friends, relatives, having fun, having our habitual routine.
Salvaging vinyl and toys
When we were urgently packing, as the first rockets had already been fired at my city and other cities in Ukraine, the most important things were about 40-50 of my favourite records, removing the covers from them to make more space. And I also took a ping-pong racket that [my best friend] Vlad presented to me.
I almost didn't take any clothes. These will always be easy to buy. [My son] Danny took toys and one PlayStation joystick.
The men stayed behind
And it was the right decision to take only a couple of backpacks because we crossed the border with Romania on foot. Unfortunately, my beloved best friend, who drove us in a car, as well as our other friends, couldn't leave because of the militarization in Ukraine—men are forbidden to leave the country.
The guys joined the so-called IT ARMY of UKRAINE, and I started a Telegram news channel for foreigners who also stayed in Ukraine, as well as for everyone who wants to be fully involved in what is happening.
Before all this, I thought that war is for the army, for the military. But it turned out that this applies to absolutely everyone. Each person is finding how to be useful and help achieve a common goal. I'm extremely proud of our people. At some point, I wanted to return to Kyiv and take up arms, as many did. But, of course, for me the most important thing is to get my child to a safe place. Thank God I have this opportunity.
It's time for action
What do I think about Russian artists? There are those who have been spending nights at the police station. There are clubs that have stopped their work for an indefinite period as a sign of protest—and because their employees go to rallies. And there are those who simply shared the poster "I am Russian I am against the war," and went to a gig that same night. By the way, more than 20 children have already died in Ukraine. Passive actions won't count. Only brave, determined Russians can stop the war.
I am very grateful to the world, to Europe, to everyone who helps stop this with information or physically, or who writes personally, who writes publicly, who takes to the streets. Brands and companies, as well as countries that have supported refugees. I can't imagine how we would all go through this if we were left alone with this war. Glory to Ukraine! A Russian warship, go fuck yourself!
Pavel Plastikk (Closer resident DJ)
Yesterday, I woke up at 4 AM and went to the border to send my kids, wife and parents-in-law to a safe place in Poland. Separating families for me is the worst decision made by our government during this war. I'm not sure they are aware of what they're doing now.
Later that day, I walked my dog and went to see some friends near Lviv. It's exhausting. I call my parents every hour to check if they are alive as they stayed under the bombs in Kharkiv.
About 90 percent of my friends decided to stay in Ukraine, some in Kyiv, some in the Western part. We are trying to be online every day and checking each other's situation.
I haven't communicated with Russians. I stopped speaking with them eight years ago after Russia attacked our lands. Things that will help us now are shelters, donations and banning Russia from everything.
Etapp Kyle
I am currently in my home town of Chernivtsi, about 500 km south-west of Kyiv and 40km from the Romanian border. My day starts with a cigarette while reading the news. It's been calm here. Nothing is happening except for the sound of civil defence sirens—luckily they were false alarms.
So far, I've been helping out here and there. I managed to evacuate my family by taking them to the border and arranging a pick up on the other side. Afterwards, I joined some friends and helped out financially. We purchased requested goods for the army and delivered them to one of the distribution centres.
That day, just before curfew kicked in, we managed to help a guy stuck at the train station in Chernivtsi and find him shelter in the apartment I had rented for my mother. It was lucky he got there in time because it's very strict now, people seen outside are even arrested during curfew. It meant he was able to continue his movements the next day.
Mostly though, I've been helping with logistics for a group of drivers trying to evacuate people from the Kyiv direction. Unfortunately, we haven't so far managed to send even one van as the only available route near Kyiv is reportedly also being bombed now. It's a mess, to be honest.
My family is safe now. Got a message from [his wife] Daria that she has finally arrived in Berlin a few hours ago and my mom is on the way to Milan (she lives there) so they are fine. On the other hand, lots of my friends are stuck in Kyiv and I wish I could be more helpful so far with evacuation.
Difficult to say how I feel about the curfew on men. When we reached my region, I was looking for ways to flee the country but realised I won't find peace in Berlin either, so I decided to embrace it and try to be useful here.
I actually felt relieved to know my loved ones finally crossed the border, I was more worried while they were here. And I've been able to speak with Daria several times a day.
People outside of Ukraine can help by firstly spreading the information about this situation. It's very important this topic doesn't leave the headlines even for a second. It helps people to stay alert and active by offering shelters and donations. It feels like we are just a few days away from this madness to end, so let's keep on pushing.
∄ Club Team Member A
Leaving Kyiv
I fled Kyiv on Thursday night. I went to the station with three of my colleagues. One of them has a dog. At the station, we had one ticket to go to Lviv. We were trying to get four people on this one ticket, then we saw there was a direct night train to Warsaw, so two of us went to this train because the others wanted to go to Lviv first. So we just pushed our way onto the train. Some of the tracks were destroyed from the attacks so we took a detour. It took 30 hours.
We were stuck for four hours at the Ukrainian-Polish border but we were super lucky because we were some of the first people to get through. I made it to Berlin and I'm now trying to help some colleagues leave Ukraine by organising logistics to get them out of the country.
If I had waited another five minutes on that platform in Kyiv, I wouldn't have gotten out of Ukraine for another few days. But at that time we didn't know. Nobody knew there would be extreme shelling on Kyiv on the second night. We were still expecting the first day of bombing to be a distraction from the war that was pushing in from eastern Ukraine. Nobody knew what was happening: if the trains were going, if the metros were going, if the border was open, and so on.
Everyone else was stuck in Kyiv or in some western towns in Ukraine, and there was heavy shelling on Kyiv that night, which also resulted in the curfew, which started [on Saturday] at 5 PM and ends on Monday at 8 AM. There is heavy violence in the streets and no one is allowed to leave their homes or shelter.
Trapped colleagues
My colleagues are Ukrainian, but we also have American, Armenian, Belarussian, Danish and German team members. We're trying to get about ten to 15 of them out. I know at least 30 team members that are still in Kyiv and I will talk with them again to see who wants to stay and who wants to leave.
My colleagues who went to Lviv have been stuck there since 4 AM on Friday morning and we still haven't managed to get them out. Lviv is about 70 to 80km away from the Polish border. They are stuck without vehicles, the train stations are collapsing, there are thousands of people pushing on the trains, families are separated, you can't even get into the stations. International citizens can't go into the country to pick people up. There are a limited number of vehicles in Ukraine willing to go out, so we're just trying to call numbers of drivers and bus services to try to get people lifts.
Infrastructure crumbling
We don't have cars. We don't have petrol or drivers to bring people out of Kyiv and from Lviv. At the moment everyone is stuck. Plus there's the problem that male colleagues who don't want to fight can't leave the country.
Infrastructure has broken down: either the petrol stations don't have staff anymore or they can't be refilled because the trucks can't get there.
While we're talking, my phone has been vibrating non-stop. There's so much going on. It's just super tense.
Update, March 1st: Finally on Monday afternoon they were able to cross the border to Poland nearly four days after they began their escape. We have also just heard that our colleagues from the club have finally made it over the border too.
∄ Club Team Member B
Organising transport
Our main mission at the moment is helping people find transport from Ukraine, mostly from Lviv to the border with Poland. Communication is chaotic. We're trying to find logistical solutions via all kinds of channels (Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, BlaBlaCar, FlixBus, train, private contacts) and then contacting people to see if there is something available, or if they have updates about the border situation at different checkpoints. Then transports have different routes with different circumstances: waiting in the car, waiting by foot, walking a lot, and so on.
Once [people are] on the other side, we will see where they can go next. But it seems like that doesn't really matter at the moment—all that matters is crossing the border.
Nastia
Leaving Ukraine behind
[Taken from Nastia's Telegram diary, February 27th.] Before we crossed the Polish border, I thought it would be a miracle if it happened, but now I feel an absolute emptiness inside. My heart ached a lot from what was happening at home. It hurt a lot for those who have to fight these days. And it was painful for mothers, especially with small children, because I remembered how hard it is to travel long and far with a child under ten years old.
It got even worse. Reading the news was unimaginably painful, feeling safe was even disgusting. No relief happened, instead came the realisation of how indecently lucky I was. Then a wave of flashbacks began: how well and carefree we lived in such an awesome city and such a cool country. Then I began to imagine what would be left of all this.
Now all friendly borders with Ukraine are experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe. Yesterday it took one-to-three days to cross the boarder. Today it takes one-to-two weeks. There is zero infrastructure to help people go through this and only women drive cars with children because all men must stay.
Speaking with Russian friends
For them, it's not easy to speak out because most of society is intoxicated with propaganda. If you go to the street [to protest], they put you in jail. If you donate, they put you in jail. If you post on Facebook, they put you in jail. Putin is a dictator, everything is under control. They are very good at making propaganda and building up narrative full of fakes. I receive many messages from people surviving the regime and those who support [Alexei Navalny]. Reading their supportive messages is making me feel even worse: I can only imagine how it is to live there and be a slave of the system. Ukrainians are free and I believe we will win and become even more free. We have strong unity, more pressure, more power we have to resist. I am super proud.
Photo: Tina Hartung
Update, March 1st: Parts of the original article have been removed due to safety concerns for people in Kyiv.
Update, March 5th: Parts of the original article have been removed due to safety concerns for people in Kyiv.
Update, March 11th: The name of one of the subjects was changed at their request.
With additional reporting by Carlos Hawthorn.