Ukraine: One Of The Country's 'Most Popular' Artists Swaps Music For Life On The Front Line

The lead singer of one of Ukraine's most popular bands has taken up arms in the fight against the Russian invasion.

A video posted by the Ukrainian defence ministry showed Andriy Khlyvnyuk, the lead singer of the rock group BoomBox, dressed in military fatigues and armed with a gun on the streets of Kyiv, as he sang a song to rally his fellow countrymen.

Khlyvnyuk is understood to have joined Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces - a unit made up of the country's military reservists - in order to defend the capital's streets against Russian attempts to capture the city.

According to one translations, Khlyvnyuk's acapella song spoke of the beauty of Ukraine and one of its national symbols, the viburnum flower.

The lyrics read: 'Oh, in the meadow the red viburnum leaned / Our glorious Ukraine is somehow upset / We will raise that red viburnum / We will cheer up our glorious Ukraine!'

BoomBox is one of Ukraine's most iconic bands, having gained a massive following in both Ukraine and abroad since forming in 2004.

Earlier in the band's career they had toured frequently in Russia, but have not performed in the country since the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Incredibly, it was only last month that Khlyvnyuk and his band last performed in Kyiv, with a concert taking place in the capital on January 2.

BoomBox's website also says they're scheduled to perform two large shows at Kyiv's Palace of Sports in April, revealing just how quickly and unexpectedly the situation in the country has deteriorated.

As recently as a week ago most Ukrainians still did not believe that Putin would order a full scale invasion of Ukraine, and his decision to do so has both left the country scrambling to gather numbers and resources to defend itself, but also united its people against the invading forces.

Khlyvnyuk joins a host of faces well-known to non-Ukrainians in taking up arms in the fight to defend their country's independence, including current heavyweight boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk, who returned home and vowed to fight earlier this week, and the Klitschko brothers, the elder of which, Vitali, is mayor of Kyiv.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have either joined the country's volunteer army or taken up arms in other ways to protect their homeland.

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