February 24, 2023 was the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

In fact you would say the invasion started in 2014 when the Russians illegally invaded and stole Crimea from Ukraine. This was after the Budapest Memorandum, through which the US and Russia declared that the present (as of 1994) boundaries of Ukraine have been inviolable—if the Ukrainians would hand over their nuclear weapons. At the moment, Ukraine had extra nuclear weapons than Russia! The Ukrainians gave up their nukes, and Russia invaded anyway. 

On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded once more. They thought it might be over in about three days. However the Ukrainians fought again. I’ve Ukrainian mates, and I get first-hand accounts of what’s occurring in Ukraine. I even have Russian mates; one among them is an excellent and soulful particular person who left Russia as a result of he may now not tolerate dwelling below the rule of Vladimir Putin. 

Putin & the Politics

For some cause, Putin’s invasion hit me proper within the intestine and the guts. In my lifetime, I’ve by no means seen a army operation or invasion that was fully unjustified. The Ukrainians have been no risk to Russia and had no plans to invade Russia. They have been simply a part of Vladimir Putin’s dream to rebuild the Russian Empire to the extent of the previous Soviet Union’s empire. Putin has been very clear about his intentions to regain and rebuild the brand new Russian Empire—and whoever will get in his manner might be rolled over and destroyed. As we are able to see within the conduct of this battle, the vast majority of their rockets, bombs, and artillery are focused to destroy civilians and civilian infrastructure with a view to make the ache of resisting so nice that the individuals will give up. 

If Putin is allowed to overcome and annex Ukraine, or arrange a puppet authorities, he’ll proceed to invade his peaceable neighbors. Vladimir has a number of excuses for this battle: one of many first ones, which was completely ridiculous, was to avoid wasting the Ukrainians from their homegrown Nazis. Had been there neo-Nazis in Ukraine? Sure, there have been. There are additionally neo-Nazis in Germany, France, Canada, the US, and the UK. Maybe that sick minority of individuals will all the time be round, or at the very least within the close to future. However that’s the worth of democracy, the great and the unhealthy. To assert that the Ukrainian authorities is being dominated by Nazis…nicely, ask their Jewish president Zelensky if that is so! 

One among Putin’s different massive excuses is that he felt threatened by NATO. NATO is a purely defensive group and has by no means invaded anybody. And why does NATO exist? Previously, it was to guard Free Europe from the Soviet juggernaut, and presently it’s to guard Europe from Putin’s insane ambitions. The Soviet Union ultimately collapsed, due partially to the corrupt inefficiency of the communist regime and likewise the us’s try and sustain with and outspend the U.S. militarily. Properly, historical past generally appears to repeat itself: similar ambitions, similar risk. 

Two of the implications of Putin’s invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine have been that it unified the NATO members in Europe like by no means earlier than, pushing each Sweden and Finland to affix this protecting, defensive alliance. Past that, and maybe most poignantly, are the a whole bunch of hundreds of lives which have been misplaced on this battle. That’s blood on the snow! The slaughter and rape of harmless civilians!

The Music: Ukraine!

The ache of this realization led me to do numerous issues to help the brave Ukrainian individuals. And out of my very own inside wrestle with sorrow and outrage got here a music: Ukraine! I had not written a music in a few years and this music felt like a very wondrous inventive rebirth for myself as a songwriter and musician. 

That is the second model of the music, which I recorded in a studio close to the place I stay. The rhythm guitar, drums, and bass are from the primary take with a gifted group of musicians who joined to help this. The lead guitar is me, and that is the primary time I’ve been recorded enjoying lead guitar. I began working towards enjoying lead guitar once I was 50 years outdated to see if, with the assistance of follow and iAwake’s creativity-enhancing tracks, an outdated canine may certainly be taught new methods. The vocals are all mine, and my spouse Pam added the female voice. It was added due to my assistant Heidi’s remark that it felt too masculine. Thanks, Heidi!

The music Ukraine! is an outcry towards the injustice of this battle and its battle crimes. However most of all, it’s to specific my deep admiration for the Ukrainian individuals. They’ve proven us within the typically cynical West that there are issues value preventing for, issues value dying for—and due to this fact, issues value dwelling for. I attempted to place into my guitar enjoying, vocals, and lyrics, the eagerness, the harm, and the braveness that the Ukrainian nation has demonstrated to the world. It doesn’t matter what refined political science nonsense individuals provide you with to justify this bloody invasion that focuses on civilians as its goal, the Ukrainians have proven us that that is their nation and they don’t seem to be going to run or give up. 

Could this music, which got here from the guts of the Ukrainian individuals by means of my coronary heart, attain your coronary heart. 

→ Hear Now: Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube Music | Amazon Music | Pandora (U.S. Solely)

The Dialog: Ukraine, One Yr Later

The Ukraine! music can be performed in our Deep Transformation podcast Ukraine, One Yr Later: Discovering Which means, Function & Methods to Contribute Amidst the Hell of Warfare. 

The podcast dialog with Dr. Kateryna Yasko and Vytautus Bučiūnas in commemoration of the anniversary of Russia’s invasion was a unprecedented expertise for me. Once more, it was a type of Deep Transformation occasions that each one who’ve been part of this, each as producers and viewers, have skilled—within the midst of our metacrisis, battle, and struggling, we’re discovering the sunshine of God. 

This episode, Ukraine, One Yr Later, provides a first-hand account of what’s going on in Ukraine and what it’s like to listen to the air raid alarms and transfer to underground shelters as explosions shake your metropolis, Kyiv. What I discover actually wonderful about this dialog is that after a yr of battle, Kateryna and Vytautas, in addition to their countrymen, are impressed and getting stronger. What an instance to the remainder of us! On the finish of the dialog, the music Ukraine! is performed, and you may hearken to it with me, Kateryna, and Vytautas. It’s a really highly effective and poignant second. 

→ Hear Now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts | Amazon Music

This weblog can be a cry for assist—beneath are some hyperlinks to reliable organizations the place you’ll be able to ship your monetary love and help. These organizations are doing an excessive amount of good on the bottom in Ukraine and are available really useful by Dr. Kateryna Yasko.

Trustable charities working onerous in help of Ukraine

• United24, the official fundraising platform of Ukraine initiated by President Zelenskyy, based to guard, save, and rebuild Ukraine: https://u24.gov.ua/
• The Basis for Competent Help to the Military, “Come Again Alive,” has launched a fundraiser to buy tools that may assist the Ukrainian army defeat the occupiers in our on-line world: https://savelife.in.ua/en/
• Serhiy Prytula’s Basis is a charitable group with each a army headquarters centered on supporting the Ukrainian military, and a humanitarian headquarters  offering help to civilians within the occupied territories: https://prytulafoundation.org/en
• People Excessive College. We encourage you to help the primary Ukrainian People Excessive College, “Vovchok,” created by a Ukrainian integral practitioner, civic activist, trainer, and rescuer, Serhiy Chumachenko. This can be a faculty for grownup individuals from the Chernihiv area that enables them to pursue lifelong training with a particular give attention to coaching in tactical drugs. Trainers and college students of the college help Ukrainian civilians and army in getting pre-medical help and medical kits mandatory for pressing assist. You’ll be able to donate right here.

P.S. If you need to buy the music, it might be an enormous assist. All of the proceeds are dedicated to the Ukrainian individuals. Additionally, be at liberty to share this music or use it in any manner that’s useful for the trigger.

John Dupuy is the CEO of iAwake Applied sciences, co-host of the podcast Deep Transformation: Self-Society-Spirit, and writer of Integral Restoration: A Revolutionary Method to the Remedy of Alcoholism and Habit. John travels internationally to show and encourage on the topics of Integral Transformative Observe and using brainwave entrainment know-how to deepen one’s meditation follow and within the remedy of dependancy, melancholy, and PTSD.