In the rain, 80-year-old Valentin Dudkine empties the water that has fallen into the tubes of his trombone, assembles his instrument and, like every morning, begins to ring the Ukrainian anthem: “Ukraine is not dead yet .”
The music resounds in the courtyard of a building in Kiev, lined with multicolored towers, soon relayed by the yelps of the Chihuahuas of a resident dressed in small raincoats for yellow and blue dogs, the national colors.
After 30 years without playing, the retired conductor from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting is now concentrated, took up the trombone at the start of the conflict against Russia in February 2022.
“We got up early, I took the trombone and I came here… I hung (the score) on a tree,” the musician told AFP. “People started coming, gathering, thanking me: you lift our spirits, you bring us back to life.”
A small group of regulars has formed around Valentin and his wife Valentina.
“Every day, regardless of the weather, we meet at 9 o’clock sharp…in this way, we send a signal to the universe about our deep desire to defeat (the Russians),” explains Natalia Tchaika, a faithful spectator.
Another resident, Svitlana Novikova, recalls that “we got to know each other and decided to sing the Ukrainian anthem every morning under the guidance of Valentin. He said: we will sing until we win.”
Some nearby residents complained about the forced daily awakening, but Mr. Dudkin says he eventually won them over.
The youngest member of the congregation is Andriï, two years old, a child who wakes up his grandmother every day, anxious not to miss “Dou-dou”: the onomatopoeia he uses to designate the sound of the trombone.
Back home, the couple look at old photos of Valentin’s career in their Donetsk region. “We were beautiful back then, weren’t we?” he said to his wife.
In their hometown of Donetsk, fighting began in 2014 between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists led by Moscow who now control the city. The clashes had never really stopped since that date.
The war launched by President Vladimir Putin in February 2022 has, however, drastically increased the intensity of the fighting in this industrial region. Cities like Bakhmout have been largely destroyed by the fighting.
The couple therefore decided to contribute to the war effort in their own way, vowing to continue playing until Ukraine won. “We feel obligated to do it, it’s a duty to ourselves,” says Mr Doudkin.
11/04/2023 17:44:29 – Kiev (Ukraine) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP