Ukrainian electro-folk duo ONUKA spent last summer touring European concert halls and headlining festivals. Now, due to a recent wartime directive, they must remain inside their home country — so the band boards trains and buses to gigs at underground shelters, as well as buildings near metro stations, in case Russian missile attacks interrupt the music.
“These shelters can accommodate up to 1,000 people. It’s a big concrete room with some seats,” says Eugene Filatov, 41, ONUKA’s producer, who performs with his wife, frontwoman Nata Zhyzhchenko, 39, and five bandmates. “People still need this cultural life.”
The group recently downsized its 2025 touring ambitions due to a late-February announcement by Ukraine’s culture ministry: As of March 3, male Ukrainian “journalists and culture professionals” of draft age will no longer receive recommendation letters for traveling abroad. So ONUKA is performing closer to its Kyiv home, readying a new album, the long-delayed Ukrainian Constructivism, for release next month, and spending more time with the couple’s children, 4-year-old Alex and 1-year-old Lina.
By Telegram call from Kyiv, three days after U.S. President Donald Trump‘s chaotic and disturbing Oval Office news conference with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Filatov and Zhyzhchenko discuss the long-term impact of Russia’s February 2022 invasion on their family and music. (Filatov, who has an “education sector” deferral from military enlistment because he is a lecturer at Ukraine’s Chernihiv Music College, also responded to follow-up email questions.)
When we previously spoke in 2023, ONUKA was still touring the world. Nata said, “When you are outside, especially when your child or parents or family is here, it’s very hard to accept.” How is your family? Is everybody OK?
Zhyzhchenko: Our kids are safe. They’re all right. The first night, in maternity hospital, [Lina] spent the night inside. That was the worst night for us. I think she’s a war kid. She decided to come to our family in a country that is at war, in a city at war, in the night.
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“War kid.”
Zhyzhchenko: This generation of children are totally war kids. They have another mentality, and this is their route, this is their life, this is their routine. We don’t have to compare our childhood with their childhood, because they are another generation. They are a war generation.
In our past interviews, you’ve spoken of Russian missiles disturbing your lives. Are explosions still happening where you live in Kyiv?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s still going on. We have another kind of weapons. It’s like flying scooters.
Filatov: It’s like big drones. Every night, there are a couple hundred of them. We sometimes hear it.
Zhyzhchenko: It sounds like a scooter, and they are flying at nighttime. That’s why the sound spreads very brightly, and physically that is why we can define them from a few kilometers. When we are lying in our beds, it’s some kind of big noise scooter sound in the sirens of night.
How terrifying.
Filatov: Thanks for the American people who are supporting Ukraine. We feel much more safe, because American systems are really, really huge and really helpful. It saves our lives. The explosions happen mostly every day, somewhere, in some cities of Ukraine.
Zhyzhchenko: It doesn’t stop.
Filatov: It’s kind of a lottery.
Zhyzhchenko: A few weeks ago, some piece of this drone collapsed near our house, and it injured the post office. This is the post office —
Filatov: — where we take our packages mostly every day.
Zhyzhchenko: Even a few times a day. It’s close here to us, less than a kilometer. We have this acceptance. It’s our reality.
Filatov: Life goes on, anyway.
How are you able to play shows under these conditions?
Filatov: Performing in shelters is a relatively new practice for Ukrainian artists. In Kharkiv, all cultural events take place exclusively in venues that have shelters — no theaters or concert halls operate unless they provide a safe space.
Zhyzhchenko: Everything happens under rockets. We have to take that fact.
What do the shelter performances feel like?
Zhyzhchenko: It’s a very pleasant feeling, because you know your performance won’t be interrupted. You have to evacuate people if you hear the siren. In a shelter, you have to not interrupt your performance. It’s some kind of comfort and very confident feeling.
How do you get to the shows?
Filatov: We usually travel either by train or by bus with the whole team. Trains can sometimes be the fastest option, especially when border queues are long, but traveling by road gives us more flexibility. So, we just trust our luck and hope for a smooth crossing. Sometimes, though, it turns into quite an adventure — like [summer 2024], when we had to travel non-stop for two days from a festival in Poland just to make it in time for Atlas Weekend in Kyiv.
Who takes care of your kids when you are performing outside of Kyiv?
Filatov: We have a support system that includes nannies, grandparents and kindergarten. They take turns depending on the circumstances.
Do your kids get to see any of the performances? What do they think?
Filatov: They are really small. Our small girl doesn’t even understand, for now, what’s going on. Our boy, Alex — it’s sad to notice that in the kindergarten, for example, they have some games, and they [name] the games after the weapons, or the missiles, or the drones.
Zhyzhchenko: When they are in kindergarten, they go to a shelter, and it is some kind of ritual. They call this shelter “the cave.” He says, “We were in the cave today, and we draw in there,” or singing some song in this cave. It’s not so terrifying for him, because it’s his reality. No one is panicking, because we have adjusted to it. The main safety is the behavior of elder people and adults around this situation.
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How are the rest of your family — parents, grandparents, siblings?
Zhyzhchenko: Everyone is safe. Everyone is working with the nation and charity causes and everyone volunteers. But inside our musical team, some people are on the front line. … Everyone has some relatives or friends who [have] died and these deaths are closer and closer.
Who are you referring to, “inside our musical team”?
Zhyzhchenko: Our graphic designer was on the front line and now we have no answer [from] him. This is a hard situation, how to understand that nothing is OK. You just have to see when this person was online the last time, and you see that this date is not changing. It’s hard to realize that maybe he’s captured, maybe he’s in hospital. But I think the reality is much worse. We are trying to go through with his command, and get information about what happened to him.
What did you make of the Feb. 28 press conference with President Zelensky and President Trump?
Zhyzhchenko: All people are very upset about what’s going on. But I think all this is temporary. Everything changes so much. It’s like a roller coaster. Some days we are best friends, the next day we are enemies, the next day we are supporters, the next day it’s very chaotic.
I do hope all people in the world understand that Russia invaded Ukraine, and we are the victim and we are standing. … We defend all Europe, because everything will be changing, very fast and terrible, if Ukraine falls. I really believe we will stand and we will not fall and we will survive.
If I wanted to leave, I would leave Ukraine. But I’m here with my little kids. I actually truly and sincerely believe in this roller coaster life.