Portugal Colonial - A Friday night concert in Kyiv to 'warm souls'

Pieces by 19th-century Ukrainian composer Semen Hulak-Artemovsky and excerpts of Mozart and Gershwin rang out across the vast waiting room hall.

The station has for several weeks been transformed into a "point of invincibility", providing a place of warmth for the population and for them to recharge their mobiles.

Immaculately dressed in a fur-collared coat and white scarf, conductor Herman Makarenko led nine string players before dozens of people, some of whom had stopped by chance.

To draw in travellers, the orchestra first played an opening piece at the top of the station's vast staircase.

Organised as part of a US-Ukrainian solidarity project, the concert is expected to be the first in a series in the weeks to come, said Tetiana Marozova, one of the organisers.

"We think this initiative is very important because we need to take care not only of our bodies in these difficult situations without heating, without electricity," she said.

"But we can bring a little bit of joy to Ukrainians and warm their souls."

Intensive Russian bombardment on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent months has left hundreds of thousands of households without heating and electricity in the depths of a particularly bitter winter.

Makarenko called music "medicine for the soul" and said Ukraine was now fighting on the "cultural front", nearly four years after Russia's full-scale invasion.

"That's very important," he said, "to show that we, Ukrainians, are unbreakable."

Some exhausted travellers seemed not to be paying attention to the music but dozens of others filmed or happily listened to it.

"Classical music is what we need at this time," smiled Zinaida Yarmolenko, 76, who came across the concert by accident after hearing the first few notes.

"I'm really happy," she added.

A.P.Maia--PC