Andrii Khlyvniuk, BoomBox band frontman, has called on the West to provide Ukraine with all the necessary weapons. The artist performed at a charity match in London and gave an interview to BBC journalist Stephen Sackur in the HARDtalk studio.
The musician emotionally addressed the Western audience after a question about the current moral state of Ukrainian youth.
“I am worried about your singers that will have to learn things I have learned. Now I am closer than thousands of miles away in Ukraine, I am here with you. And you, guys, watching me on your TV. I am very worried that you don’t see your neighbor, a close neighbor in me, if you don’t. Because if you do, give me all the weapons you would give to your boys to protect you from evil,” Khlyvniuk said.
If the partners do not support Ukraine in every way possible, then “your sons, and your brothers, and your singers, and your writers, will become machine gunners and drone pilots like I did”, said BoomBox frontman to the western audience.
The musician believes that the world should recognize that Putin is a war criminal; this will help speed up the restoration of peace and the victory of Ukraine.
“If we all agree that this guy is a war criminal, then we have to take him dead or alive. And that going to be the end of this war. It’s easy,” Khlyvniuk concluded.
Khlyvniuk is currently fighting on the southern front near Kherson, engaged in air reconnaissance and combat operations. The artist combines service and concerts abroad to raise money for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the first days of the full-scale invasion of Russia, a musician sang the Oi u luzi Chervona Kalyna (“Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow”) Ukrainian song on the Sophia Square in Kyiv, which became a symbol of the invincibility of Ukrainians.
Cover: BBC
