In the rain, Valentin Doudkine, 80, empties the water that has fallen into the tubes of his trombone, assembles his instrument and, like every morning, begins to sound the Ukrainian anthem: “Ukraine is not yet dead . The music resounds in the courtyard of a building in Kiev, lined with multicolored towers, soon relayed by the yelps of the Chihuahuas of a resident dressed in small raincoats for yellow and blue dogs, the national colors.
After 30 years without playing, this retired orchestra director from the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, where the fighting is now concentrated, took up the trombone at the start of the conflict against Russia in February 2022. “We got up early, I took the trombone and I came here… I hung (the score) on a tree,” says the musician. “People started to come, to gather, to thank me: ‘you lift our spirits, you bring us back to life.’ »