"On February 28, my friend Serhii Cherevaty (spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces - author's note) called me and said that thanks to the Turkish "bairaktars" our guys stopped a column of enemy equipment on the approaches to Kyiv.

And then asked if I could write something about it?

I sat down and wrote the song "Bayraktar" in one breath in 15 minutes.

Hastily made an arrangement, dropped Sergey.

And then it was posted on the page of the Ground Forces.

That's how my creation spread," Taras recalls.

When "Bayraktar" was heard from almost every iron, Selchuk Bayraktar himself - the owner of the company that manufactures the famous UAVs, and the son-in-law of the President of Turkey, turned to Taras Borovka.

He personally invited Taras to visit the plant.

"Of course, I will go, but only after our victory," Taras smiles.

- By the way, the other day I had a dream that when I write 50 patriotic songs - there will be victory.

Today there are already 32 of them. And each one tells about all stages of this war.

That is, a kind of war story in songs." 

Now Taras Borovok gives concerts in military hospitals, travels to the front.

And he feels how important it is to provide emotional support to our soldiers in this way. 

Indeed, despite all the horrors of war, the muses are not silent today: new hits are born almost every day, and old ones come to life, because our ancestors sang about what is very valuable to us now - about independence, will and fighting spirit.

"Oh in the meadow is a red viburnum" is a song by the Ukrainian Sich snipers, which more than 100 years after it was written became not just a hit, but a musical symbol of our resistance.

On February 27, the leader of the "Bumboks" band Andrii Khlyvniuk, who then joined the ranks of the capital's TrO, sang it a cappella on Sofia Square - and this video went viral on social networks. 

Videos for "Kalyna" flooded TikTok around the world, a remix by South African musician The Kiffness hit all the radio charts, and British rock legends Pink Floyd reunited for the first time in almost 30 years to record a track in support of Ukraine.

And the chorus was the same "Kalyna" performed by Andrii Khlyvnyuk.

"Yes, a lot has happened since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of patriotic music.

Rock musicians were the first to respond, because they have been in this topic for a long time, since 2014.

Many went to the front with concerts then.

And now they are on the front lines, already like warriors."

- says Sonia Sotnyk, host of the KAMTUGEZA morning show on Radio Rocks.  

"We release two or three new tracks by Ukrainian artists every morning.

Some cover hits of Western music and create Ukrainian texts on them.

And we do not know, and no one knows, how many of these songs will remain with us after the war.

It is clear that 90 percent of them will be forgotten.

But ten will definitely be ours forever." 

For many musicians, the Russian invasion solved once and for all the eternal dilemma of which language to sing in.

The Ukrainian-language hit by Max Barsky "There will be spring", written in the first days of the war, immediately resonated in the hearts of millions of Ukrainians.

Today, the singer performs his songs only in Ukrainian. 

"Some of those who sang in Russian before the war stopped singing altogether," radio presenter Sonya Sotnyk notes.

- Some have started to translate their repertoire into Ukrainian.

This applies mostly to pop music.

As for rock, it seems to me that musicians of this direction have long since abandoned the Russian language.

And they sang more in English.

But now, in order to share their anger and pain with the people, they switch to Ukrainian as well." 

According to Sonia, today the program directors of radio stations do not have a problem with where to get Ukrainian music content: the war encourages musicians to share their emotions, and there are a lot of new songs.

Another thing is what mood to choose?

What do people like now: sad and lyrical music, or a track that supports and inspires?

After all, we are all too sensitive and emotionally unstable now.

"I know that not even all musicians can write songs now.

And some of them are still silent.

And not because they have nothing to say, the radio host shares his thoughts.

- For example, I know a musician who was in the occupation in Buchi.

He could neither listen nor play music for a long time.

This caused him unbearable emotions." 

However, psychologists believe that songs of any genre and mood, written during the war, unite us as a nation - they create an emotional connection between Ukrainians, wherever they are now: at the front, in the occupation, in other regions of the country or abroad. 

"Patriotic songs, regardless of their mood, shape our collective subconscious," says psychologist Olga Mayfet.

- Now this is our common tool for feeling that we all belong to one social and national group.

Sounds, melody, words give us the opportunity to feel emotions - cry, laugh, get angry.

And if we feel all this - we live!

To date, this is one of our most important values ​​- to survive the war and continue to live together."