Amid that strike and hundreds<\/a> of similar overnight Russian aerial attacks, new and traditional Ukrainian music has become for many a sort-of counterpoint to the sirens that blare around the country nearly every night, several musicians who work in Ukraine told ABC News.<\/p>\n Roman Pilipey\/AFP via Getty Images – PHOTO: Ukrainian rescuers work at the site of heavily damaged buildings following a Russian air attack in Dnipro, on April 16, 2026, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n ‘Massive’ Russian attack on Ukraine kills 16, injures at least 100, Ukrainian officials say<\/a><\/p>\n Almost 300 miles away from Kolomiec in Kyiv lies Odesa, Ukraine\u2019s third most populous city, located by the Black Sea. It was also targeted in Thursday\u2019s massive Russian strike, officials said.<\/p>\n Hobart Earle is conductor of the city\u2019s Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra. Throughout the war they have continued to play, even after the orchestra\u2019s concert hall was damaged in January 2025. Three ballistic missiles fired from Russian-occupied Crimea directly hit the nearby Hotel Bristol. The shock shattered the concert hall\u2019s stained-glass windows and the main door was blown off its hinges.<\/p>\n \u201cThat door survived the Russian Revolution, the Civil War, the Second World War, and everything Mother Nature had to throw at it, but the force of this missile blast was too much,\u201d Earle said.<\/p>\n Courtesy of the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra – PHOTO: Hobart Earle is seen in an undated image supplied by the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra.<\/p>\n The orchestra was set to perform that evening. With less than six hours’ notice, Earle moved the concert to the Odesa Conservatory.<\/p>\n \u201cThe place was full to the rafters. It was a very symbolic moment because it showed that people really do need music. When times are tough, that is when the arts are needed more by people. Music is transformed by war,\u201d Earle continued.<\/p>\n During Thursday’s attacks, the Conservatory’s student accommodation was hit by a Russian drone, wounding five, officials said.<\/p>\n Earle\u2019s sentiment was echoed by Kyiv-based electronic musician SI Process, or Stanislav Ivashchenko. He created the track “Kyiv Future”<\/a> during the winter of 2025 when Russian strikes hit critical energy infrastructure leaving Ukrainians freezing, without electricity or heating.<\/p>\n \u201cI wrote it on the last charge of my laptop, which is why it carries a certain \u2018dark-groove of our lives,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cCreating in such conditions is incredibly difficult, but there\u2019s also a clear sense of how unique this moment is.\u201d<\/p>\n Yuri Gryaznov courtesy of Stanislav Ivashchenko – PHOTO: Stanislav Ivashchenko is seen at Origin Stage in Kyiv, Ukraine, on November 21, 2025, in this photo supplied by the artist.<\/p>\n When the war broke out with Russia\u2019s invasion in February 2022, Kolomiec knew she needed to stay connected with friends. In apartments across the city, they have in the years since gathered and played Ukrainian songs both new and old — \u201cthis is how I stay mentally okay.\u201d<\/p>\n Musical events of all kinds, from informal gatherings to electronic music festivals to classical concerts, carry an \u201cimportant mission,\u201d said Ivashchenko, \u201cto bring people together, to offer a sense of mental return to normal life, and of course, to support our soldiers. Every festival raises funds for aid.\u201d<\/p>\n But the harsh realities of war are never far as events sometimes are paused during air raid alerts when people move to shelters. There are also many musicians who are fighting on the front line.<\/p>\n Ukraine outshoots Russia in cross-border drone war for 1st time, March data suggests<\/a><\/p>\n On the night of the 15th, DakhTrio performed musical arrangements of words by Ukrainian poets. Kolomiec said a setting of a poem by Vasyl Stus felt particularly relevant. Stus died in 1985 in the Russian Perm-36 labour camp, where he had been imprisoned for anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda.<\/p>\n His work focused on Ukrainian identity in the face of Soviet repression: \u201cThere is a fight; I\u2019m on the battlefield, \/ Where all my soldiers are the words I wield,\u201d Stus wrote, according to a version translated\u00a0by Artem Pulemotov.<\/p>\n \u201cCreating music in Ukrainian was not only discouraged but dangerous\u201d Kolomiec said.<\/p>\n Courtesy of Daria Kolomiec – PHOTO: Daria Kolomiec is seen in a photo taken in July 2022 at The Lot Radio in New York.<\/p>\n![\"Roman](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/russia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e2ae003c7ed93cbfd4ade667de6050f7.jpeg\"\/)
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