Poetry on the Frontline: How Ukrainian Artists Inspire the Souls of Soldiers

Heidi Siegmund Cuda highlights the soul-quenching work of Mykolai Sierga and the Cultural Forces of Ukraine

Mykolai Sierga

When Mykolai Sierga first brings music and poetry and puppeteers to the frontline soldiers in Ukraine, he is accustomed to being met with poker faces.

Let’s face it, war is hell. But he soldiers on, delivering poetry like roses, and puppeteers like salvation. He says inevitably the soldiers soften, surrendering to the muses of art. 

On June 8 at TEDx MidAtlantic in Washington DC, Sierga described poetry on the frontline as a major tension reliever, and during any given month, the Cultural Forces of Ukraine’s artistic mobile units perform 200 events to ease the psychological pain for five to ten thousand soldiers and officers.

“We have about 70 artists in 8 groups, working on all sections of the frontline: in trenches, dugouts, hospitals, rehabilitation, and training centers,” said Sergia. “Each group has 6-8 people and performs 2-4 concerts per day. Today, we will make about 20 concerts. Since the full-scale invasion of Russian forces, we have conducted more than 4,000 concerts.”

“Cultural Forces brings together active servicemen of artistic and creative trades,” Sierga told Byline Supplement, at the DC event’s afterparty. “Through culture and arts, we provide moral and psychological support for combat units at the front line, and the wounded in the hospitals.”

From opera houses to the battlefield, these service members deploy their finely tuned skills in the humanities to help defeat Russia by boosting the emotional strength of the Ukrainian troops.