Theatre of War

“All my life, I’ve been searching for a place to myself, a personal mission, a calling. And I found it in Donbass,” says Francois Maud d’Eme, vocalist with the Donetsk philharmonic and sergeant of the Donbass militia. He volunteered to join the armed forces to save people and protect his new home during the special operation in Ukraine. Francois participated in the Mariupol liberation and saw the destruction that Ukrainian nationalism had caused.

Today, many performers are fighting for the Donbass militia. Some of them were conscripted, others were volunteers like Francois. But all of them want to protect their homeland. “This is my land; I don’t want to move from here. I am on my soil, and I am protecting it,” says Denis Filchenko, head of production at the Donbass Opera theater, who now serves in the militia.

Watch "Theatre of War" on RTD website and on RT's live feed. The time of the broadcast is available on RT's schedule page.