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YAHIDNE, Ukraine , Jul 25 (AP) \u2014 In a village in northern Ukraine that was devastated by Russian occupation only months ago, a techno party is in full swing.<\/p>\n
In a bombed-out building, more than 200 young people have found a novel way to help rebuild their country.<\/p>\n
The daytime \u201cclean-up rave\u201d in Yahidne was organized by young Ukrainians who have been using dance parties as a way to contribute to recovery efforts in the country\u2019s north, which has suffered major damage from Russian bombardment.<\/p>\n
Shovels in hand, the volunteers tackle the remnants of a village cultural center that was destroyed in March by a Russian rocket strike, tossing piles of debris onto a tractor\u2019s loader. A DJ, his turntables mounted on a stack of ammunition boxes, spins techno and house dance music as the volunteers work. Some even take a break from their labor to dance.<\/p>\n
\u201cVolunteering is my lifestyle now,\u201d said Tania Burianova, an organizer with the Repair Together initiative. \u201cI like electronic music and I used to party. But now it\u2019s wartime and we want to help, and we\u2019re doing it with music.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s vibrant club scene was brought to an abrupt halt with the Russian invasion on Feb. 24. Now, with a nighttime curfew in effect in Kyiv, the capital, and the threat of more Russian rocket attacks ever present, adherents of Ukraine\u2019s party culture have sought to combine the fun and freedom of a music festival with rebuilding the country they love.<\/p>\n
Burianova said the clean-up raves bring together those who had lost their nightclub community during the war, helping them regain a sense of normalcy and fun while contributing to the recovery of damaged towns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe miss (parties) and we want to come back to normal life, but our normal life now is volunteering,\u201d Burianova, 26, told The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
The damaged cultural center sits on the edge of Yahidne, where nearly all of the just over 300 people in the village were confined to a basement for weeks by Russian forces during the occupation of the northern Chernihiv province.<\/p>\n
Local resident Nina, 68, said she spent those awful weeks in the basement before the Russian troops withdrew, and that 11 people died there as a result of the poor conditions. She was grateful to see young people coming together to help the village recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey already repaired our windows, doors and entrances,\u201d Nina said of the volunteers. \u201cWe couldn\u2019t do it ourselves with our salaries or pensions. I\u2019m thankful that they helped us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the volunteers were in their 20s and 30s and came from Kyiv, about two hours\u2019 drive away. But others have come from the western city of Lviv and also nearby Chernihiv, while some foreign volunteers arrived from Portugal, the United States, Germany and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
The clean-up at the cultural center was the group\u2019s eighth project so far, and they have already helped repair 15 damaged homes in the village. They plan to expand and hold a building camp event in the nearby town of Lukashivka, where they will construct 12 houses for people whose homes have been destroyed, Burianova said.<\/p>\n
After finishing a set, DJ Oleksandr Buchinskiy said all of the volunteers were connected by a sense of optimism and responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are all young people that still have a passion for life, but they feel pain and are very sad and angry because of the war,\u201d Buchinskiy said. \u201cBut they feel a need to take part in this historical moment, and help people, and make Ukraine a better place with a smile on their faces.\u201d<\/p>\n
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YAHIDNE, Ukraine , Jul 25 (AP) \u2014 In a village in northern Ukraine that was devastated by Russian occupation only months ago, a techno party is in full swing. In a bombed-out building, more than 200 young people have found a novel way to help rebuild their country. The daytime \u201cclean-up rave\u201d in Yahidne was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-196348","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}