Yungblud has shared his support for the people of Ukraine following Russia’s invasion of the country earlier today (February 24).
The country has officially severed diplomatic ties with Russia and declared martial law after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on the neighbouring nation, according to BBC News.
Yungblud posted a video on social media expressing his support for Ukraine this evening.
“I just want to get on here and express how absolutely devastated I am for the beautiful people of Ukraine, a country I’ve been to many times and felt it’s beauty and felt it’s pride and met some incredibly amazing, progressive beautiful people,” he said in the emotional video.
“I just wanna send all my prayers to the people of Ukraine.”
He described Russia’s invasion as a “senseless, inhumane act of violence” before calling on people to “speak out” and “donate” to help those affected. He also called on world leaders to “eradicate” war.
sending all my prayers to the beautiful people of Ukraine 🇺🇦🖤 pic.twitter.com/N1lBqludZV
— YUNGBLUD (@yungblud) February 24, 2022
He continued: “I just want to urge everyone out there to speak up right now. Use your voice and spread as much information as possible, donate to charities…[I] urge world leaders to get together and fight their hardest to make the idea of war completely eradicated.
“Ukraine I am with you, my support is with you 100percent. I love you.”
The actions of Putin, who has claimed that Russia does not intend to occupy Ukraine and that his country’s actions amount to a “special military operation”, have drawn widespread condemnation from across the globe.
AP reports that while global powers are preparing strong new sanctions against Russia, a co-ordinated military intervention to defend Ukraine is not being considered presently.
US President Joe Biden has pledged “severe” sanctions on Russia, saying in a statement that Ukraine is “suffering an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces” and that “Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering”.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said that the outbreak of conflict in the country was a “catastrophe for our continent”.
Reactions to the situation in Ukraine from prominent figures in the worlds of music, entertainment and politics have been posted on social media, with the likes of Foals’ Yannis Philippakis, Bring Me The Horizon‘s Oli Sykes, Franz Ferdinand‘s Alex Kapranos, London Mayor Sadiq Khan, Taika Waititi and Amanda Palmer all speaking out in support of Ukraine.
The country, which has a population of 44million people, borders both Russia and the European Union. As the BBC reports, Russia has long resisted Ukraine’s move towards embracing European institutions like NATO and the EU. Putin is now demanding guarantees from the West and Ukraine that it will not join NATO, a defensive alliance of 30 countries, and that Ukraine demilitarise and become a neutral state.
Al Jazeera reports that Russia’s defence ministry has claimed that its air attacks on Ukraine were not targeting cities and posed no threat to civilians, while Ukraine has reported that at least eight people had been killed and nine were wounded by Russian shelling overnight.