OAN’s Brooke Mallory
4:41 PM – Wednesday, May 15, 2024
America’s own diplomat performed a classic song by Canadian-American musician Neil Young in a bar in Kyiv, attempting to send a message to Ukraine and the rest of the globe.
In response to increased Russian missile attacks, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken paid an unexpected visit to the capital of “war-torn” Ukraine this week.
He performed with a local Ukrainian band called “19.99” on Tuesday at Barman Dictat.
However, Arsen Gorbach, the band’s guitarist, disclosed to reporters that the group was misled into believing that they would be playing with Neil Young, the folk-rock legend himself. When they found out that it would be Blinken performing alongside them instead, Gorbach said that he was highly “disappointed.”
“We thought, and we were messaged, that it would be Neil Young,” Gorbach said on BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Wednesday.
The band, in addition to Blinken, played Young’s famous song “Rockin’ in the Free World.”
Before going on stage, Blinken grabbed a microphone and told the bar’s patrons that he could see how Ukrainian soldiers and residents were still “suffering.” He also promised that the U.S. would continue supporting Ukraine.
“Your soldiers, your citizens—particularly in the northeast, in Kharkiv—are suffering tremendously. But they need to know—you need to know—the United States is with you, so much of the world is with you, and they’re fighting not just for a free Ukraine, but for the free world. And the free world is with you, too,” Blinken said.
The U.S. secretary of state is well-known in the nation’s capital for being an amateur musician who does not hesitate to take the stage.
Additionally, Blinken has uploaded his own tracks on Spotify under the moniker “ABlinken.”
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