U2’s Bono and the Edge Give Surprise Performance in Subway Bomb Shelter in Kyiv, Ukraine

U2 singer Bono and guitarist, Dave “The Edge” Evans gave a surprise performance early Sunday, May 8 at the Khreschatyk subway station in Kyiv to help uplift the spirits of the people in Ukraine.

“President [Volodymyr Zelensky] invited us to perform in Kyiv as a show of solidarity with the Ukrainian people,” said Bono and Edge in a tweet, “and so that’s what we’ve come to do.”

The subway stations have frequently been used as bomb shelters in the city throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“The people in Ukraine are not just fighting for your own freedom, you are fighting for all of us who love freedom,” Bono said to the audience. “We pray that you will enjoy some of that peace soon.”

Bono and Edge were joined by soldier and singer Taras Topolya of the Ukrainian band Antytila for a rendition of the Ben E. King classic “Stand By Me”— replacing the word “Me” with “Ukraine”—before performing U2 hits “With or Without You,” “Desire,” “Angel of Harlem.” 

Antytila recently collaborated with Ed Sheeran for the song “2step,” which Sheeran also filmed the video for in Kyiv prior to the Feb. 24 invasion by Russia. Proceeds from the YouTube streams of the single are being donated to Music Saves UA, a project by the Ukrainian Association of the Music Events.

Topolya said that he broke away for a moment from serving his country because it was not only a huge opportunity to play with “legends” but to “tell the world the truth about our war.”

“This train station, I was walking in when I was a boy, and I was thinking about music here a lot of times from school to my base where we played music,” said Topolya. “This station covered a lot of people, and now in this station U2 is covering all of the station with their love.”