For Ukraine, One 12 months Later: A Music and a Dialog

February 24, 2023 was the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In fact you can say the invasion started in 2014 when the Russians illegally invaded and stole Crimea from Ukraine. This was after the Budapest Memorandum, wherein the US and Russia declared that the present (as of 1994) boundaries of Ukraine have been inviolable—if the Ukrainians would hand over their nuclear weapons. At the moment, Ukraine had extra nuclear weapons than Russia! The Ukrainians gave up their nukes, and Russia invaded anyway. 

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded once more. They thought it will be over in about three days. However the Ukrainians fought again. I’ve Ukrainian associates, and I get first-hand accounts of what’s occurring in Ukraine. I even have Russian associates; one in every of them is an excellent and soulful particular person who left Russia as a result of he might not tolerate dwelling below the rule of Vladimir Putin. 

Putin & the Politics

For some cause, Putin’s invasion hit me proper within the intestine and the guts. In my lifetime, I’ve by no means seen a army operation or invasion that was utterly unjustified. The Ukrainians have been no risk to Russia and had no plans to invade Russia. They have been simply a part of Vladimir Putin’s dream to rebuild the Russian Empire to the extent of the previous Soviet Union’s empire. Putin has been very clear about his intentions to regain and rebuild the brand new Russian Empire—and whoever will get in his approach will likely be rolled over and destroyed. As we will see within the conduct of this struggle, the vast majority of their rockets, bombs, and artillery are focused to destroy civilians and civilian infrastructure with a purpose to make the ache of resisting so nice that the folks will give up. 

If Putin is allowed to overcome and annex Ukraine, or arrange a puppet authorities, he’ll proceed to invade his peaceable neighbors. Vladimir has a number of excuses for this struggle: one of many first ones, which was completely ridiculous, was to avoid wasting the Ukrainians from their homegrown Nazis. Have been there neo-Nazis in Ukraine? Sure, there have been. There are additionally neo-Nazis in Germany, France, Canada, the US, and the UK. Maybe that sick minority of individuals will all the time be round, or not less than within the close to future. However that’s the worth of democracy, the nice and the unhealthy. To say that the Ukrainian authorities is being dominated by Nazis…nicely, ask their Jewish president Zelensky if that is so! 

One among Putin’s different large excuses is that he felt threatened by NATO. NATO is a purely defensive group and has by no means invaded anybody. And why does NATO exist? Previously, it was to guard Free Europe from the Soviet juggernaut, and at present it’s to guard Europe from Putin’s insane ambitions. The Soviet Union ultimately collapsed, due partially to the corrupt inefficiency of the communist regime and likewise the united states’s try and sustain with and outspend the U.S. militarily. Properly, historical past generally appears to repeat itself: similar ambitions, similar risk. 

Two of the implications of Putin’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine have been that it unified the NATO members in Europe like by no means earlier than, pushing each Sweden and Finland to affix this protecting, defensive alliance. Past that, and maybe most poignantly, are the lots of of 1000’s of lives which have been misplaced on this struggle. That’s blood on the snow! The slaughter and rape of harmless civilians!

The Music: Ukraine!

The ache of this realization led me to do quite a few issues to help the brave Ukrainian folks. And out of my very own inside battle with sorrow and outrage got here a tune: Ukraine! I had not written a tune in a few years and this tune felt like a very wondrous inventive rebirth for myself as a songwriter and musician. 

That is the second model of the tune, which I recorded in a studio close to the place I stay. The rhythm guitar, drums, and bass are from the primary take with a proficient group of musicians who joined to help this. The lead guitar is me, and that is the primary time I’ve been recorded taking part in lead guitar. I began working towards taking part in lead guitar after I was 50 years outdated to see if, with the assistance of observe and iAwake’s creativity-enhancing tracks, an outdated canine might certainly study new tips. The vocals are all mine, and my spouse Pam added the female voice. It was added because of my assistant Heidi’s commentary that it felt too masculine. Thanks, Heidi!

The tune Ukraine! is an outcry in opposition to the injustice of this struggle and its struggle crimes. However most of all, it’s to specific my deep admiration for the Ukrainian folks. They’ve proven us within the typically cynical West that there are issues price combating for, issues price dying for—and due to this fact, issues price dwelling for. I attempted to place into my guitar taking part in, vocals, and lyrics, the eagerness, the harm, and the braveness that the Ukrainian nation has demonstrated to the world. It doesn’t matter what refined political science nonsense folks give you to justify this bloody invasion that focuses on civilians as its goal, the Ukrainians have proven us that that is their nation and they aren’t going to run or give up. 

Could this tune, which got here from the guts of the Ukrainian folks via my coronary heart, attain your coronary heart. 

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The Dialog: Ukraine, One 12 months Later

The Ukraine! tune can be performed in our Deep Transformation podcast Ukraine, One Year Later: Finding Meaning, Purpose & Ways to Contribute Amidst the Hell of War. 

The podcast dialog with Dr. Kateryna Yasko and Vytautus Bučiūnas in commemoration of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion was a rare expertise for me. Once more, it was a type of Deep Transformation occasions that every one who’ve been part of this, each as producers and viewers, have skilled—within the midst of our metacrisis, struggle, and struggling, we’re discovering the sunshine of God. 

This episode, Ukraine, One 12 months Later, offers a first-hand account of what’s going on in Ukraine and what it’s like to listen to the air raid alarms and transfer to underground shelters as explosions shake your metropolis, Kyiv. What I discover actually superb about this dialog is that after a yr of struggle, Kateryna and Vytautas, in addition to their countrymen, are impressed and getting stronger. What an instance to the remainder of us! On the finish of the dialog, the tune Ukraine! is performed, and you’ll hearken to it with me, Kateryna, and Vytautas. It’s a really highly effective and poignant second. 

→ Hear Now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music

This weblog can be a cry for assist—beneath are some hyperlinks to reliable organizations the place you possibly can ship your monetary love and help. These organizations are doing quite a lot of good on the bottom in Ukraine and are available advisable by Dr. Kateryna Yasko.

Trustable charities working arduous in help of Ukraine

• United24, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine initiated by President Zelenskyy, based to guard, save, and rebuild Ukraine: https://u24.gov.ua/
• The Basis for Competent Help to the Military, “Come Again Alive,” has launched a fundraiser to buy gear that may assist the Ukrainian army defeat the occupiers in our on-line world: https://savelife.in.ua/en/
• Serhiy Prytula’s Basis is a charitable group with each a army headquarters centered on supporting the Ukrainian military, and a humanitarian headquarters  offering help to civilians within the occupied territories: https://prytulafoundation.org/en
• Folk High School. We encourage you to help the primary Ukrainian Folks Excessive College, “Vovchok,” created by a Ukrainian integral practitioner, civic activist, trainer, and rescuer, Serhiy Chumachenko. This can be a faculty for grownup folks from the Chernihiv area that permits them to pursue lifelong training with a particular concentrate on coaching in tactical drugs. Trainers and college students of the college help Ukrainian civilians and army in getting pre-medical help and medical kits vital for pressing assist. You possibly can donate here.

P.S. If you need to buy the tune, it will be an enormous assist. All of the proceeds are dedicated to the Ukrainian folks. Additionally, be at liberty to share this tune or use it in any approach that’s useful for the trigger.

John Dupuy is the CEO of iAwake Technologies, co-host of the podcast Deep Transformation: Self-Society-Spirit, and creator of Integral Recovery: A Revolutionary Approach to the Treatment of Alcoholism and Addiction. John travels internationally to show and encourage on the topics of Integral Transformative Apply and the usage of brainwave entrainment expertise to deepen one’s meditation observe and within the therapy of dependancy, despair, and PTSD.