Ukraine war: Ukrainian musician Maryna Krut to raise funds for Ukraine with Edinburgh concert

Maryna will play a charity concert in Edinburgh next Tuesday.

Ukrainian musician Maryna Krut will play a charity concert for Ukraine in Edinburgh next week, with 80 per cent of the profit going to humanitarian aid in Ukraine. The modern bandura player and singer-songwriter, better known as KRUTЬ, was a participant at the Edinburgh International Culture Summit in August, performing at Holyrood. She returns to the Capital next Tuesday (November 22) to play a charity concert at St Mary's Cathedral on Palmerston Place at 7pm. Tickets, priced £25, are on sale now.

The concert has been organised by Daria Tsebriy (31), a Ukrainian woman from near Kharkiv who has lived in Edinburgh for nine years after coming here to study. Daria is a friend of Maryna, with whom she decided to play the fundraiser after performing here in August.

Daria, who is a volunteer at the Ukrainian Community Centre (AUGB) in Edinburgh and works for the social enterprise Sunflower Relief London - a grassroots organisation which provides aid to Ukraine, explained more about why she is bringing Maryna back to Edinburgh. She said: "She is a unique musician. She goes to bomb shelters to perform, goes to the frontline cities to entertain our soldiers, playing traditional Ukrainian folk songs. She is a very brave girl, helping soldiers keep their spirits up.

Maryna Krut, more famous as KRUTЬ, is a renowned Ukrainian singer/songwriter and bandura Virtuoso.

"So we decided to get her to Edinburgh and put our efforts together to raise awareness of Ukraine’s cause and raise some money to help. She is my friend, but she is a very famous singer in Ukraine, and she performed at the Scottish Parliament in August. She is now back in Ukraine but she has a visa to return next week.

"We were organising events together before the war, I know her through a childhood friend. When she was over in August I chatted to her when she also played in Balerno on Ukrainian Independence Day for temporarily displaced people from Ukraine in Edinburgh. That’s when we decided to do this big concert for Ukraine to raise money for charities helping people back home and just to let people here hear her play live.”

Daria explained the importance of this upcoming charity concert given the current situation in her homeland.

She said: “Winter is coming and the situation in Ukraine is worsening. The temperature can drop to minus 30 degrees. It’s really, really bad because of the critical infrastructure being hit by Russian missiles, leaving people freezing. There is no lights or anything.

"I want to raise awareness of the situation and as much money as possible to help the people. I have my mum, friends, godchildren who are still there, they live without heating, with just two or three hours to wash as there is very little water supplies. And I have friends fighting on the frontline from my youth, university and school. We are all standing together.

"People here were very keen to help in Ukraine at the start of the war but that is slowing down so it is very important to highlight what is happening in my homeland.”