Zelenskiy asks Grammys fans to support ‘any way possible’

(Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday made a surprise video appearance at the music industry’s star-studded Grammy Awards in Las Vegas and pleaded with viewers to support his country “in any way possible”.

“What’s more than music? The silence of devastated cities and killing people,” Zelensky said in the video, introducing John Legend’s performance of “Free” and featuring Ukrainian musicians and reading by Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk.

“Fill the silence with your music. Fill it today, to tell our story. Support us in any way you can. Anything, but not silence,” said Zelensky, wearing his now trademark olive green shirt, in English, in his hoarse voice.

War broke out in Ukraine more than a month ago after the Russian military invaded, displacing millions of civilians and reducing cities to rubble. Russia describes its actions in Ukraine as a “special operation.”

The actor-turned-wartime leader Zelensky, 44, has used nighttime videos to great effect at home, often appearing unshaven and in a T-shirt, and has also sent his picture straight to parliaments around the world.

He has appealed to his allies in speeches at the US Congress, the Japanese National Diet, the British and Australian parliaments and the Israeli Knesset, and on Sunday chose an event dedicated to the global language of music to galvanize support for his country.

“Our musicians wear flak jackets instead of uniforms and sing for the wounded in hospitals and even for those who don’t hear them, but the music will spread,” he said.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani, Rami Ayoub, and Danielle Trotta). Editing by Christopher Cushing and Stephen Coates

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