All quiet on the Zakhidnyi Viter front: An accordion raises funds for the military
Central Lviv is bustling with people. Ten people, old in years but young at heart, set an upbeat mood for the passersby. They sing vibrantly to an accordion accompaniment, taking shelter from the heat in the shade. Next to them sits an open old suitcase with a plain plastic bag inside. A passerby has already dropped in some money to get things started. This is how they have raised nearly 10 million hryvnias for the military since spring 2022. Frontliner tells the story of Zakhidnyi Viter [Western Wind], a creative ensemble of senior volunteers.
Central Lviv is full of both locals and tourists. Yet everyone nearby stopped when the senior musicians began their performance with a prayer and the national anthem. Afterward, the city returned to its usual rhythm.
Some linger for a few minutes just to snap a photo beside the amateur musicians. Others sing and dance along to several songs in a row. And some never look up from their meals and drinks at the nearby outdoor tables.
But the donation bag slowly fills up, and ensemble leader Yaroslav Halan graciously thanks everyone who approaches. He is especially grateful to the children who joyfully toss in their bills.
“We are working for victory. Fine lads, ages 18 to 99,” calls out the loud-voiced ensemble leader Halan.
Singing all his life
Yaroslav Halan has devoted more than half a century to music. He learned to play the button accordion at age 6, and by sixth grade, he was already singing at weddings and earning his own money to buy a buttered bun in the school cafeteria. From then on, musical groups and ensembles accompanied him his entire life. He performed with his peers at weddings, sang in a choir in Lviv, and after his military service, became the head of the village club in Stradch in the Lviv region and created an ensemble there. Later, he received a formal musical education and began teaching music in schools in neighboring villages. Along the way, he crossed paths with renowned singers of the era, including Stepan Hiha, Ihor Bohdan and Vasyl Bilozir.
When the full-scale war began, he decided to help using his talent. Starting in April 2022, he and his colleague, saxophonist Bohdan Kozak, gathered donations for the military in central Lviv, joining a small group of amateur musicians who were already performing there. Later, they formed their own ensemble, and within a week, nearly 20 people eagerly signed up to sing for the cause.
“At first we collected a thousand or two hryvnias, which was not a lot of money,” Yaroslav Halan says. “But people noticed us, new members joined, and we felt like a real ensemble. Then, after caroling season in the winter of 2023, we counted our first half a million hryvnias.”
These days, the musician rarely enjoys a day off. Three times a week, Yaroslav Halan collects donations with Zakhidnyi Viter, and he also sings at the village church and in the Nadsiannia choir in Lviv. After his performances, he tends to two goats at home, looks after his garden, and runs a family business: a small kiosk selling tea and coffee. He never misses a game of the Strilets youth football team, leaving him with only rare moments to stroll through the thick pine forest beside his house.
Driven by their leader’s tireless pace over five years of volunteering, Zakhidnyi Viter supports the troops of the 24th Mechanized Brigade, the OUN Volunteer Battalion, and the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade, both directly and through partner volunteers. The senior volunteers support fundraisers for other brigades and service members with disabilities in rehabilitation. This includes the son of ensemble member Liubomyr Semchyshyn, for whom they raised over half a million hryvnias.
Singing because there’s no such thing as other people’s children
At age 68, Liubomyr Semchyshyn is a tall, broad-shouldered man living with low blood pressure and a pacemaker. He spent his life working in construction and in business. Yet he always stayed true to what he calls a spiritual calling: performing in musical ensembles. Despite his health issues, Semchyshyn became one of the first members of Zakhidnyi Viter and rarely misses a volunteer performance.
We refuse to be passive bystanders
while the enemy seeks to erase our identity,
“This is one of our last chances to preserve our state,” Liubomyr Semchyshyn says. “If we fail to prevail, we will once again fall under the yoke of our perennial enemy. We refuse to be passive bystanders while the enemy seeks to erase our identity. So we fight with song, while our young men and women fight for victory with weapons on the front line.”
His son Yaroslav Semchyshyn also chose that path, volunteering for the 82nd Air Assault Brigade. During combat in the Kursk region on August 13, 2024, Yaroslav was severely wounded in the head by a Russian drone. Doctors gave him little chance of survival, yet he pulled through. He endured surgeries, received the Order for Courage, 3rd Class, and has been in rehabilitation for more than two years.
“I am very proud of my son,” Liubomyr Semchyshyn says. “He cannot walk yet and requires long-term treatment, as his left arm and leg are essentially paralyzed. He often says he would rather have lost a leg, because then he would already have a prosthesis and could return to the front. Yet our family receives tremendous support from people, especially from our ensemble. I am endlessly grateful for both the financial assistance and the kind words, which sustain me through my personal struggle. That is why I keep singing, to help other people’s children as well.”
Singing even without a voice after surgery
The ensemble’s youngest vocalist, 66-year-old Olha Ardel, also thinks about other people’s children. After each performance and the final tally, she exchanges all the collected cash for large bills to make it easier to deliver to the military.
For most of her life, Ardel worked in a sewing workshop, finding her deepest joy in embroidering traditional shirts. Later, she cooked meals for drivers transporting construction materials near her home in Lviv. And starting in the spring of 2023, she took on a third life mission: supporting the military through singing so the troops have everything they need.
Last year, Ardel fell ill: on June 19, she underwent thyroid surgery. Doctors told her that she would be able to speak, but never sing again. Yet just five days after the operation, she was already harmoniously complementing the songs with her new soft, low-pitched voice.
Singing keeps me going, and thanks to the ensemble,
I have a reason to live,
“I have two women here who feel like sisters to me, Lesia and Liuba, and we have so much in common. Besides, two soldiers in my own family have already fallen. So I go out to sing under any circumstances, because I cannot bring myself to do otherwise while our young men are losing their lives. Everyone has to contribute something to the shared struggle. I found my place in singing.”
Singing with a broad smile despite leg pain
Lesia Tarnavchyk, who barely stopped smiling during the hours-long performance, also can no longer imagine life without music. For most of her career, she worked as a process engineer and later as an office clerk. Yet at every opportunity, she sang in a women’s choir, and today she is a vocalist with Zakhidnyi Viter. Her world took an unexpected turn in the spring of 2023 when her granddaughter taught her to use a smartphone. That was when she stumbled across a video of the senior volunteer musicians.
“I am retired, so nothing is holding me back from singing and making a difference,” Lesia Tarnavchyk says. “We are helping the military, so it is my duty. I feel loved and respected here, and I can no longer imagine my life without this ensemble.”
She often has to sacrifice family time for performances, but seizes every opportunity to spend time with her granddaughter and two great-grandchildren, who love watching TikTok videos of their great-grandmother and calling her “our beauty.” Following the death of her son Marian in 2014, she pours all her love into them. And though she often finds it hard at 71, her sense of responsibility is stronger than her fatigue.
After a nearly three-hour marathon performing folk and popular Ukrainian songs, the senior volunteers finally sit down on a bench. They need a moment to rest and count today’s contributions for the military. Soon, their songs will add up to an even 10 million hryvnias.
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I had seen many short clips on social media featuring this ensemble of seniors, but I first met them in person in the winter of 2023. It was freezing, yet they made their way down the street, singing carols at the top of their lungs. One of the performers carried a donation box for the Armed Forces of Ukraine in front of her. It was so cold that the ensemble leader’s fingers were reddened as he played the accordion non-stop. Passersby would stop to sing a couple of carols with them, then hurry along to run their errands or warm up in cozy coffee shops. But they kept on singing. Around that time, they had reached their first half a million hryvnias; today, they are already raising their 10th million. Who are these people who set aside a peaceful retirement while the war goes on? I set out to find the answer in this story.
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