Ukraine-Russia war: Bono, The Edge perform in Ukraine subway station
Rock stars Bono and The Edge have put on an emotional show in a Kyiv metro tunnel as air raid sirens echoed above. WATCH VIDEO
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Irish rock star Bono praised Ukraine’s fight for “freedom” during a performance in a metro station in downtown Kyiv, where the U2 frontman also issued his own prayer “for peace”.
From the platform of a Kyiv metro station on Sunday local time, the 61-year-old rock icon belted out U2 classics Sunday Bloody Sunday, Desire and With Or Without You.
“The people in Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” said Bono during a break.
The singer also referenced the past conflicts in the band’s native Ireland and the troubles it had with a more powerful neighbour.
“We pray that you will enjoy some of that peace soon,” said Bono.
The surprise appearance by Bono – a long time humanitarian who frequently lends his voice to a variety of causes including the fight against poverty and AIDS – came as air raid sirens echoed in the Ukrainian capital and fighting raged in the country’s east.
At one point, Bono invited a Ukrainian soldier to sing along who called on the world’s support for the embattled country as they covered Stand by me.
Bono performed alongside U2’s guitarist The Edge to a small crowd of fans including fatigue-clad members of Ukraine’s armed forces.
“It’s some good emotions, that’s all,” said a member of the Ukrainian territorial forces in the audience.
“It’s a strange feeling, like being a child going to first grade,” said 36-year-old university lecturer, Olesia Bezsmertna, ahead of the show.
JILL BIDEN, JUSTIN TRUDEAU IN UKRAINE
US First Lady Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to Ukraine on Sunday, local time, her spokesman said, crossing the border from Slovakia to meet with her Ukrainian counterpart Olena Zelenska at a school being used as a shelter for displaced civilians including children.
“I wanted to come on Mother’s Day. I thought it was important to show the Ukrainian people that this war has to stop and this war has been brutal and that the people of the United States stand with the people of Ukraine,” Mrs Biden told reporters.
A US official on the visit also said it was Mrs Zelenska’s first public appearance since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.
It comes as US President Joe Biden virtually met with the Ukrainian President and his G7 counterparts during a meeting of the G7 forum on Sunday.
G7 leaders reassured Volodymyr Zelenskyy that they will continue to provide military and economic assistance to repel Russian attacks.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Sunday visited Irpin outside the capital of Ukraine, its mayor said, where Russian forces were accused of atrocities against civilians.
Irpin Mayor Markushin Alexander posted pictures on an official social media channel with pictures of Mr Trudeau writing that the Canadian prime minister “came to Irpin to see with his own eyes all the horror that the Russian occupiers had done to our city.”
SIXTY FEARED DEAD AFTER SCHOOL BOMBED
A Russian strike on a school sheltering civilians claimed 60 lives, Ukraine said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the death toll in Saturday’s Russian air strike on a school in the eastern village of Bilogorivka.
“Bilogorivka (village) was hit in an air strike” Sergii Gaidai, head of the Luhansk regional state administration, said.
“The bombs fell on the school and unfortunately it was completely destroyed,” he said on Telegram.
Rescuers could not work overnight because of a threat of new strikes, but resumed their work on Sunday.
Amin Awad, the United Nations Ukraine crisis co-ordinator, said he was “profoundly shocked” by reports of the incident.
“The attack, which reportedly left dozens of people dead, is yet another stark reminder of the cruelty of this war,” he added.
“My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Rescuers were also looking for survivors in the neighbouring village of Shepilivka after a strike hit a house where 11 people were sheltering in the basement, he said.
EUROPE’S NUCLEAR WAR FEARS
There are growing fears Russian President Vladimir Putin could declare all out war with Europe on Monday, allowing him to impose martial law and call out conscripts for combat.
And analysts say a limited nuclear strike on Ukraine cannot be ruled out.
An increasingly frustrated Russian leader has said the continued supply of weapons to Ukraine by Europe and others including Australia effectively put them at faux war with Russia.
The US on the weekend dispatched another US$150 million (AU$211 million) of fighting hardware including artillery munitions and electronic jammers bringing their commitment to more than US$3.8 billion (AU$5.4 billion) with US President Joe Biden now urging Congress to commit another $20 billion in military aid.
The US has also been providing Ukraine’s military with critical real-time classified intelligence that has allowed them to kill Russian generals on the frontline and was used to sink Russia’s flagship battleship last month.
For days President Putin and the Kremlin have been hinting at an imminent announcement and analysts say May 9, when Russia celebrates Victory Day to mark the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany, will be used to announce his next move.
This could also include Mr Putin declaring the eastern half of Ukraine will be formally annexed, although the territory is far from lost as NATO continues to pumps weapons into the region to help Ukrainian forces.
The 69-year-old Kremlin leader has repeatedly likened the war in Ukraine to the challenge the Soviet Union faced when Adolf Hitler’s Nazis invaded in 1941.
Australian Security Policy Institute senior analyst Malcolm Davis said as Russia struggled with conventional warfare, a nuclear attack could be his strategy to “escalate to de-escalate” in which a low-yield nuclear weapon is detonated on Ukraine.
“Russia’s explicit and implicit nuclear posturing sets a dangerous precedent of threats to coerce, in which any response may lead to uncontrolled escalation to nuclear war,” he said.
He added: “In the Indo-Pacific, we’d need to consider the prospect that China might alter or abandon its no-first-use nuclear policy and place greater emphasis on developing tactical and sub-strategic nuclear forces for coercion and possible use in a future Taiwan crisis.”
An estimated 11,000 troops are expected to march across Red Square behind more than 130 pieces of military hardware as a grand spectacle, as well as a flyover of the Il-80 command plane, known as the doomsday aircraft which would carry Russia’s top brass in the event of a nuclear war.
The rationale being the president and his commanders would co-ordinate a nuclear war from the air.
Mr Putin has long said a limited nuclear strike was a possibility and has not limited such an action to Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he did not believe Russia had any interest in ending the conflict and warned the scale of the damage and losses on a global scale increased with each passing day.
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