The musician says with exaggeration that the war caught him at an age when many are already preparing for a quiet life and “digging onions in the garden.” He, on the other hand, completed military training in Spain at the age of fifty.
“When they found out how old I am there, they didn’t want to believe it. Sometimes it’s a disadvantage to look younger than your actual age, because you are exposed to the same physical load as a much younger man. But older men also fight here. I said to myself: I’d rather go than some young boy. I’ve already seen and experienced something, and our youth have their whole lives ahead of them,” says Pidluzhny.
You hold your helmet tight and say goodbye to life
He remembers many moments when he didn’t care about everything.
“You are sitting in a caponieri (a type of defensive structure, note ed), a hole seven meters deep and wide in a closed special container of a military truck. It is terribly cold, the forest is so dark that you cannot see with your own hand. It is impossible to go far, even for basic needs, because Russian sabotage groups (abbreviation DRG, late order) they are constantly lurking around. You hear on the radio: “Caution! On enemy DRG territory!” Then bullets start flying chaotically, enemy artillery is aimed at you, and you don’t quite understand what’s going on. You’re sitting in a place you can’t leave, and you realize: one hit is enough and you can be burned alive. Fasten your helmet and say goodbye to life in spirit,” describes the Ukrainian musician’s experience from the front line.
He also has vivid memories of one of the Russian attacks on the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region, from which today the front is only a few kilometers away. According to Pidlužný, the Russians shelled the city, which had around 50,000 inhabitants before the invasion, with Iskander rockets.
“One of them flew over me so close that I thought I heard the sound of some kind of alien spacecraft flying from hell itself. The sound is so threatening and unpleasant that it literally paralyzes your arms and legs. You freeze in place as if an electric current passed through you,” he recalls.
Andriy Pidluzhnyi describes that war can sound different in different parts of the country. In the city, part of the pressure wave from the explosions is absorbed by the buildings, while in the countryside or in the open air, you can hear their pure sound – terrifying, as if it were cutting the ground in half.
“I remember the beginning of the war in Kiev: the shelling was so strong that I woke up with the feeling that my heart would burst. Now I’m used to it, I don’t react so violently. The worst thing is that children get used to all this and live in this hell. Now I live in Kramatorsk – a front-line city that suffers daily. The Russians attack with rockets, Shahid, FPV drones. But the most terrible thing is FABs and KABs (guided aerial bombs, note ed.) weighing 1,500 kilograms. They destroy vast territories and kill many people. They literally tear them apart. People, including children, die almost every day,” he describes the tragic reality of cities located near the front.
Propaganda was not systematically fought
Despite all the horrors of the war, the native of Ternopil says that the east of Ukraine was extremely fascinating to him.
“There is beautiful nature here, which you can see, for example, in the works of the talented artist from Sloviansk, Serhiy Smetankin, who paints the landscape of the Donetsk region on crates where ammunition is stored. There are many patriotic people here,” he says.
Pidluzhny also recalled how in 1993 he took part in the all-Ukrainian Red Route festival in Donetsk.
“At that time, we were afraid to go from west to east, because we were told that the miners were very aggressive. Then the Wind from the East festival took place, where we won the Grand Prix, and again in Donetsk. We met many wonderful people there. Even then, artificial Russian propaganda was spreading – and, unfortunately, no one tried to systematically fight it at the state level,” he noted, adding that “no one tried to explain or change the situation.”
All this, according to his words, led to the so-called the fifth column gained strength and power in the east. “The Russians and their henchmen infiltrated the higher levels of power and occupied key state and military positions. It was a disaster,” adds the Ukrainian music producer.
