U2 Shares Message of Support for Ukraine 3 Years After Russian Invasion: Listen to the Poem
The members of U2 are making sure the people of Ukraine know that they still have their backs three years after Russia’s invasion.
On Monday (Feb. 24) — the same date Russia launched its full-fledged military operation on Ukraine in 2022, effectively sending the countries into a war that is still ongoing — Bono shared an emotional piano-accompanied reading of Taras Shevchenko’s “My Friendly Epistle” on the Irish rock band’s Instagram. “Break then your chains, in love unite, nor seek in foreign lands the sight of things not even found above,” the poem dictates. “Then, in your own house, you will see true justice, strength and liberty!”
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“All who believe in freedom and sense the jeopardy we Europeans now find ourselves in are not sleeping easily on this, the third anniversary of the invasion,” Bono wrote in his caption, revealing that he and The Edge had originally sent the musical reading to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy days after Russia first invaded three years ago.
“More to say about this and other bewilderments later,” added the “Mysterious Ways” musician.
Bono and his U2 bandmates have been vocal in their support of Ukraine throughout the country’s war against Russia, which began in February 2022 when the latter country’s president, Vladimir Putin, ordering multiple attacks on Ukraine’s major cities as part of a “special military operation.” In April that year, Irish rockers performed on a bill with Celine Dion, Katy Perry and more stars as part of a Stand Up for Ukraine relief show, a month after which Bono and Edge traveled to Kyiv to perform Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me” in a metro station.
Last year, Bono also paid tribute to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny — one of Putin’s most outspoken critics who died in Russian prison in February 2024 — during one of U2’s residency shows at Las Vegas’ The Sphere. “For these people, freedom is the most important word in the world,” the frontman told the crowd at the time. “So important that Ukrainians are fighting and dying for it, and so important that Alexey Navalny chose to give his up.”
As Ukraine enters a fourth year of fighting off Russia, its fate remains uncertain. Many Western leaders gathered in Kyiv Monday to observe the date and, in some cases, pledge more military aid to Zelenskyy’s efforts. However, President Donald Trump recently stirred up concern over the United States’ yearslong Biden-era alliance with Ukraine by calling Zelenskyy a “dictator,” while maintaining a cordial relationship with Putin amid Trump’s pushes for a peace settlement.
See U2’s tribute to Ukraine below.
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