Russian Invasion of Ukraine (2022)

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    Italy Cancels Valery Gergiev’s Festival Appearance

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    Some lawmakers in Italy had argued that Valery Gergiev’s planned appearance sent the wrong message as Europe strives to remain united in its support for Ukraine. A concert at a festival in Italy that was to have been the conductor Valery Gergiev’s first in Western Europe since Russia invaded Ukraine more than three years ago was canceled on Monday amid a backlash over the musician’s close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Antonella Giannattasio, a spokeswoman for the Un’Estate da RE festival, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Gergiev would no longer perform on July 27 at the Royal Palace of Caserta, a historic site north of Naples.Italian activists and politicians had denounced plans for Mr. Gergiev to conduct at the event. Mr. Gergiev, a staunch ally of Mr. Putin, lost all his engagements in the West when Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.There was concern in Italy and more broadly in the European Union about Mr. Gergiev’s participation, given that the festival is bankrolled by the bloc. There were fears that his presence could be seen as an endorsement of Russia at a time when Europe is scrambling to provide weapons to Ukraine as the Trump administration’s support for Kyiv has seemed to waver.Italy’s culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, said in a statement on July 15 that allowing Mr. Gergiev to participate in the festival “risks passing the wrong message.”“Ukraine is an invaded nation, and Gergiev’s concert may turn a high-level but objectively controversial and divisive musical event into a sounding board for Russian propaganda,” Giuli added. “Which for me would be deplorable.”The planned concert also drew international condemnation. Yulia Navalnaja, the widow of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei Navalny, wrote in a guest article for the Italian daily la Repubblica last week that Mr. Gergiev’s performance in Italy “would be a gift to the dictator.”Before the war in Ukraine, Mr. Gergiev was one of the world’s most sought-after conductors, with regular engagements at leading concert halls and opera houses. But his work in the West dried up after he declined to denounce Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He lost numerous engagements, and the Munich Philharmonic removed him from his post as chief conductor three years before his contract had been set to expire.Mr. Putin rewarded Mr. Gergiev in 2023 by tapping him to lead the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The move put him at the pinnacle of Russian culture, since he was already the artistic and general director of the nation’s other leading performing arts institution, the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg. (In Moscow Mr. Gergiev replaced Vladimir Urin, who had been the Bolshoi’s general director since 2013 and who had signed a petition expressing opposition to the war in Ukraine.)Mr. Gergiev and Mr. Putin have known each other since the 1990s, and the maestro has supported the Russian leader in election campaigns.Elisabetta Povoledo More

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      Valery Gergiev, Shunned in West Over Putin Support, Will Conduct in Italy

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      Valery Gergiev, an ally of Vladimir V. Putin, is set to conduct in Western Europe for the first time since institutions there cut ties over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Valery Gergiev, the star Russian maestro who has been shunned in the West because of his close ties to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, will appear this month at a festival in Italy, his first engagement in Western Europe since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.Mr. Gergiev, a staunch ally of Mr. Putin who has helped promote the president’s policies, is set to conduct on July 27 at the Royal Palace of Caserta, a historic site north of Naples, the Un’Estate da RE festival announced last week. He will lead an orchestra from Salerno, Italy, in a program featuring performers from the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, which Mr. Gergiev leads.The announcement drew protests from Italian politicians and activists, who expressed concern that Mr. Gergiev was being allowed to perform again in the West. Mr. Gergiev, whose extensive international career once made him one of the busiest maestros in the world, has been declared unwelcome in the United States and Europe since the Russian invasion.Mr. Gergiev did not respond to a request for comment.The decision to engage Mr. Gergiev also drew criticism because the festival is bankrolled by the European Union. Its funding flows, via Italy’s national government, to a company owned by the Campania region, where the festival takes place. The company funds several cultural events throughout the region, including Un’Estate da RE.Pina Picierno, a left-leaning Italian politician who serves as a vice president of the European Parliament, said that it was “unacceptable that European funds are being used to finance the performance of a Kremlin supporter.” In a post on X, she called on the festival and on regional officials “to take immediate action to prevent Valery Gergiev’s participation and ensure that taxpayers’ money does not end up in the pockets of a supporter of a criminal regime.”Vincenzo De Luca, the center-left president of the Campania region, defended the festival’s decision to engage Mr. Gergiev in a statement. He said the invitation showed that “dialogue between people can grow and the values of human solidarity can develop.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      A New Opera Shines Light on Ukrainian Families Separated by War

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      The Metropolitan Opera, hoping to revive support for Kyiv, released an excerpt from “The Mothers of Kherson,” about abducted Ukrainian children and their relatives.The Metropolitan Opera typically takes pains to keep developing works under wraps to give artists the space to make changes and take risks.But “The Mothers of Kherson,” an opera recently commissioned by the Met about abducted Ukrainian children and their relatives, is different. The company released an excerpt from the opera on Monday — more than a year before its premiere — hoping it might help revive support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia.“This is one way of fighting back,” said Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager. “We don’t want the world to forget what’s going on. This is an artistic way of reminding them.”“The Mothers of Kherson,” by the Ukrainian composer Maxim Kolomiiets, with a libretto by the American playwright George Brant, tells the story of two mothers in the southern city of Kherson who embark on an arduous, 3,000-mile journey to rescue their daughters, who are being held by Russians at a camp in Crimea.The characters in the opera are fictional, but the story is based on the accounts of Ukrainian mothers who traveled into Russian-occupied territory, and back again, to recover their children. (In March, the State Department said it would pause funding for the tracking of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, under a program run by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      More European Opera Houses Welcome Back Anna Netrebko

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      The star soprano, who lost work after Russia invaded Ukraine because of her past support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, will return to the stage in Zurich and London.Anna Netrebko, the renowned Russian soprano, was shunned by many of the world’s leading opera companies after Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago because of her past support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.Since then, though, a number of Europe’s most prestigious companies have welcomed her back. And next season she will return to two more major opera houses there for the first time since the war began: Zurich Opera and the Royal Opera in London.With those engagements, Ms. Netrebko will have returned to many of the world’s leading stages, with one notable exception: the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where she reigned as a prima donna for two decades.Peter Gelb, the Met’s general manager, severed the company’s ties with Ms. Netrebko three years ago, citing her “close association with Putin.” He has said that he believes Ms. Netrebko, a citizen of Russia and Austria who lives in Vienna, has made a “disingenuous effort to distance herself from the Russian war effort.”Ms. Netrebko sued the Met, accusing the company of discrimination, defamation and breach of contract. A federal judge narrowed the suit last year to gender discrimination claims; her case is still pending.Ms. Netrebko has returned to Teatro alla Scala in Milan, the Berlin State Opera, the Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opera, among others. And in recent days London and Zurich both announced that they, too, would welcome her back.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Dismayed by Trump, the Star Pianist András Schiff Boycotts the U.S.

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      Mr. Schiff, who has refused to play in Russia and his native Hungary because of strongman rule, said he was alarmed by President Trump’s “unbelievable bullying.”András Schiff, an eminent concert pianist who has boycotted strongman rule in Russia and his native Hungary, said on Wednesday that he would no longer perform in the United States because of concerns about President Trump’s “unbelievable bullying” on the world stage.Mr. Schiff, 71, a towering figure in classical music, said he was alarmed by Mr. Trump’s admonishments of Ukraine; his expansionist threats about Canada, Greenland and Gaza; and his support for far-right politicians in Germany. Mr. Schiff, who was born to a Jewish family in Budapest that witnessed the horrors of the Holocaust, said that Mr. Trump’s calls for mass deportation reminded him painfully of efforts to expel Jews during World War II.“He has brought an ugliness into this world which hadn’t been there,” Mr. Schiff said in a telephone interview this week from Hong Kong, where he is performing. “I just find it impossible to go along with what is happening.”So Mr. Schiff decided to stop performing in the United States. He said that he was canceling appearances next spring with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, and a recital tour this fall with a stop at Carnegie Hall.Mr. Schiff, revered for his interpretations of the music of Bach and Mozart, is the latest artist to boycott the United States because of Mr. Trump. Last month the German violinist Christian Tetzlaff announced he would no longer perform in the country, citing Mr. Trump’s embrace of Russia, among other concerns.The small but growing cultural boycott is a jarring reversal. In the past, it was American performers who often canceled engagements overseas to protest war, autocracy and injustice. Now the United States is seen by some as a pariah.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Yura Borisov of ‘Anora’ Went From the Kremlin to the Oscars

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      Yura Borisov, who is nominated for an Academy Award on Sunday, is pulling off a rare feat: pleasing audiences at home in Russia as well as in the West.On the face of it, the Russian actor Yura Borisov was an unlikely actor to land an Oscar nomination in 2025.Just a few years ago he played a guileless soldier in a Kremlin-sponsored movie that celebrated a Soviet tank model. Later, he starred in a biopic of Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who invented the Russian automatic rifle.But after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he stopped playing in militaristic movies. Last year, Western audiences fell in love with him as a tight-lipped but sentimental mafia errand boy in “Anora,” a Brooklyn-based indie dramedy about a stripper who impulsively marries the son of a Russian oligarch.At the Academy Awards on Sunday, Borisov is up for best supporting actor for the role.The war in Ukraine cut many Russian artists off from the West, but Borisov has been among the few who managed to transcend the dividing lines. He has continued a career in Russia, without endorsing or condemning the war, while in the West, he has evaded being seen as a representative of state-sponsored Russian culture.“Borisov hasn’t picked a side,” said Anton Dolin, a leading Russian film critic. “Maybe he is just very smart, or maybe he thinks he is not smart enough,” Dolin said by phone from Riga, Latvia, where he now lives in exile.“It doesn’t matter,” Dolin added. “His behavior and strategy have been impeccable.”Borisov at the BAFTA Film Awards in London this month. Over the past weeks, he has been on the road campaigning for awards for “Anora” and attending ceremonies.Andy Rain/EPA, via ShutterstockWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      ‘Porcelain War’ Review: A Defiant Dispatch From Ukraine

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      A new documentary follows artists in wartime, on and off the battlefield.The latest documentary dispatch from Ukraine, “Porcelain War,” brings a message of hope rooted in art. Making art does feel like an act of resistance during the Russian invasion, when Kremlin propaganda attacks the very existence of Ukrainian culture. But what’s intriguing is that the directors, Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev, also celebrate Ukraine’s military defense, making for a jangly mix of idyll and warfare.Slava, who appears in the film, is both a ceramist and a member of a Ukraine special forces unit who gives weapons training to civilians turned soldiers. His partner, Anya, paints the whimsical figurines he creates, and the irrepressible couple weather the war in bombed-out Kharkiv with their more anxious pal Andrey, a painter and cameraman.Anya and Slava find some refuge in their house, and saccharine sequences show off tranquil fields and their cute dog. Some lovely animated moments set Anya’s finely wrought porcelain painting into motion; singing by the Ukrainian quartet DakhaBrakha rings out on the soundtrack.But then the focus shifts decisively to Slava’s army unit on the battlefield. Drone shots track bombs falling on Russian tanks and soldiers; Slava’s comrades hustle through ravaged buildings, equipped with GoPro cameras that give a first-person feel. Elsewhere, Andrey anguishes over spiriting his daughters away to Poland.Impressively, nearly everything was shot by the documentary’s subjects. Yet although their double duty is an awful fact of life in Ukraine, the film lurches between its varying components and tones. As the filmmakers repeatedly tie an inspirational bow on art and beauty, the good intentions yield cold comfort.Porcelain WarRated R for language and images of death. In Ukrainian, Russian and English, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 57 minutes. In theaters. More

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      ‘Intercepted’ Review: The Awful Intimacy of the War in Ukraine

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      In leaked phone calls home, Russian soldiers grapple with the war they’re waging. This new documentary sets the calls’ swagger and anguish against images of the invasion’s devastation.The voices of the offscreen Russian soldiers and their acquaintances in the powerful Ukraine-set documentary “Intercepted” are matter-of-fact, swaggering and anguished. “I tell you, they live better than us here,” a soldier tells a woman back home. “Right, look how the West supports them,” she says.Sometime later, another soldier explains to a different woman, “We were given the order to kill everyone we see” to protect Russia’s miliary positions. “I’m telling you, I’ve already seen a forest full of corpses, more than a cemetery.” He adds, “I said that I won’t kill anyone.”Not long after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and Russian troops started flooding into the country, their communications began leaking out, at times with dire consequences. Ham-radio operators and open-source groups began capturing unencrypted battlefield radio transmissions among Russian forces on the ground. Ukraine also intercepted more prosaic phone calls that Russian soldiers made to their families and friends, to their wives and mothers and children. The soldiers talked about how they were doing, what they’d seen, what their orders were and even disclosed their locations; some spoke about whom they had killed.You hear a number of these phone calls in “Intercepted,” which was directed by the Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker Oksana Karpovych. In a director’s statement for the movie, Karpovych explains that she was working in Ukraine as a producer for the news network Al Jazeera when the invasion began. After the intercepted calls were publicly released, she and a crew of four — including her cinematographer, the British photographer Christopher Nunn — traveled across Ukraine gathering images of devastation, which she has juxtaposed with calls intercepted between March and November 2022. The result is a haunting, often jolting depiction of the profound toll that the war has exerted on soldiers and civilians alike.“Intercepted” is at once subtle and blunt. It opens on three children — one on a swing — next to an otherwise empty country road that stretches down the middle of the shot. It’s an outwardly ordinary, pacific tableaux. There are chalk marks scrawled on the road, a couple of bikes resting on the grass and a woman lingering off to the side. The trees are lush and green, and there are no obvious signs of war. At one point, a car in the distance slowly crosses the road. Karpovych then cuts to a closer shot of the kids, which allows you to see their faces more fully; I think that she wants you to remember them as you watch.That first country street leads to many more. The movie starts in the north and moves south and then west, a route that Karpovych has explained in interviews is meant to suggest the trajectory of the invasion. Using a mixture of vivid, precisely framed moving and still images, she takes you across the war-ravaged country. You travel down dirt and paved roads, some flanked by incinerated military vehicles, and into heavily bombed villages and cities. She also recurrently brings you into people’s homes, including some that look like they were hastily abandoned. In one, a carton of eggs still rests on a kitchen table amid a jumble of crockery, suggestive of an unfinished breakfast. In another house, a woman sweeps up shattered glass.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ukrainian Poet and Rock Star Fights Near Front and Performs Behind It

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      Serhiy Zhadan, 50, is a beloved Ukrainian poet as well as a novelist, lyricist and rock star. Furious over the invasion, he enlisted to fight even as his band still plays and his readings fill halls.When the Ukrainian army hit a crisis of recruitment earlier this year amid rising losses on the battlefield, one of the most popular cultural personalities in the country stepped up and enlisted.“At some point it became uncomfortable not to join up,” said Serhiy Zhadan, in an interview at a military base in July.A beloved poet, novelist, lyricist and rock star in Ukraine, Mr. Zhadan, 50, joined a local National Guard brigade in his home city of Kharkiv in May and started a two-month stint in boot camp. By summer he was serving in an engineering unit on the second line of defense.Many of his friends were already fighting, he said of his decision to enlist. “This feeling that someone is fighting for you, instead of you, while you are also able to join, was also important.”Although he said he did not intend to set an example, Mr. Zhadan’s decision to join the army resonated with many, across generations and with lovers of both his words and music.He can fill a sports hall or a Kyiv theater for poetry readings, as he did on occasions this summer, and his rock band was acclaimed for delivering the best set at the Atlas music festival, Ukraine’s largest, in July. Proceeds of his performances go toward buying medical supplies and other equipment for the soldiers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More