US secretary of state took to stage with his guitar to perform Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World
It was an unexpected moment at the end of a long day in Kyiv for Antony Blinken, after numerous high-level meetings and serious pronouncements promising the speedy delivery of US military aid. The secretary of state picked up a guitar and performed a rendition of Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World with a Ukrainian rock band.
The images, quickly shared on social media, split opinion in Ukraine, with some hailing them as a welcome gesture of support and others questioning the optics of performing in a bar while the situation at the front is so tense.
Blinken took to the stage at Barman Dictat, a well-known speakeasy-style bar in central Kyiv hidden in a basement inside a courtyard, and joined the Ukrainian band 19.99.
“Your soldiers, your citizens – particularly in the north-east, in Kharkiv – are suffering tremendously,” Blinken said before playing.
