'Be loud and yell about everything that happens today': Ukrainian musicians speak out about war

Andriy Khlyvnyuk is driving.

He put his children in the car on Thursday morning and headed out of the capital city, away from Kyiv.

"I'll take my kids to a safe house, to granny's. And then I'll return to follow the instructions of the government and if it's needed I'll take my gun and go fight for my country" he tells Euronews.

With a string of hit albums behind him, and more than 100 million YouTube views of his music videos, the lead singer of BoomBox finds himself in the same situation as many other Ukrainians after the start of the Russian military assault: apprehensive but resilient.

"They bombed us" he says. "But what I hear now is complete support from everywhere, from everyone who knows me and listens to my music."

Khlyvnyuk says all of his friends are leaving their kids in safe places and getting together to join the army.

"Musicians are peacemakers," he states, but "now it's not time for playing guitars. It's time to take the rifles."

BoomBox perform in Ukrainian, Russian and English but since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, they've refused to play gigs n Russia.

Musicians played a headline role promoting peace during the latter half of the 20th century, from Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger and Nina Simone singing anti-war songs in the Vietnam era; to the range of artists using their music to highlight conflicts and injustice from Latin America to Europe and the Middle East.

The Moscow Music Peace Festival of 1989 gathered acts like Bon Jovi, Ozzy Osborne, The Scorpions and Mötley Crüe for a massive concert, held over two days at a stadium in Moscow, the first event of its kind in post-Glasgnost Russia.

And arguably the most iconic images of anti-war protests by musicians are from a series of 'Bed-Ins for Peace' staged