Russian Music and War: Why Ukrainians Keep Listening to Songs by Enemy Performers

Russian music is part of the aggressor country's economy, which is working toward Ukraine's destruction.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, about 22% of people in Ukraine continue listening to music by Russian performers. Another 7% of respondents consume this content at the same level as before February 24, 2022. This is according to data from a survey conducted by the research company Gradus Research in 2023.

TikTok blogger 'koshelnik_tv' also conducted a survey in which people spoke candidly about their preferences regarding Russian performers. Most respondents were young people who still look for various 'reasons' not to give up the aggressor's culture.

A Kyiv student has said in the video that she listens to Instasamka regardless, adding that a war doesn't mean she can't listen to Russian music.

On average, streaming platforms pay $4.40 per thousand streams, of which the musician receives about two dollars. Ukrainians stream 200 billion tracks a year, 37 billion of them Russian. As a result, the aggressor country's artists could be earning as much as $74 million a year from Ukrainian listeners.

A Historical Look at the Situation: How This Came to Be

To understand the historical reasons behind teenagers' preference for Russian music, the DeTalks team spoke with historian Danylo Prokopenko, a teacher at Academic Lyceum No. 5 in Obukhiv.

Prokopenko has said he sees the main reason for Russian music's popularity among teenagers in the widespread presence of Russian culture in Ukraine, noting that Ukraine spent a long time as part of Russian state formations — the Russian Empire, the USSR — and that Ukrainians were under the influence of Russification for a long time as a result.

He has added that Ukrainians today know Russian well, even without studying it in school, which makes it easier for teens to engage with Russian-language content — not just in music, but in film, TV, games, and social media too, adding that unfortunately, changes on this front won't happen quickly and will take considerable time, the historian explained.

The Psychology of the Issue: Why This Happens

Psychologist Tetiana Zakharevych-Liubchenko shared her experience working with young people around the issue of listening to Russian music, exclusively for DeTalks.

She has said this comes down to upbringing, noting that family and school fall short here, adding that pro-Russian information sources are very active on social media right now, and that one trait of teenagers is forming groups and cliques — wanting, on one hand, to fit in, and on the other, to stand out somehow — and that a teenager often ends up following the lead of whoever sets the tone within their group, so a conformist who ends up in such a group listens to whatever everyone else listens to.

She has added that if a family holds patriotism as a value, no peer group will be able to motivate a teenager to listen to Russian pop.

The psychologist ran her own anonymous online survey at a school in Netishyn (240 students aged 13–17), in which about 25% admitted to sometimes listening to Russian music, and 12% said they do so regularly.

Asked why they listen to Russian music, one student gave the following answer.

"He said Russian performers make better, fresher music than most Ukrainian ones, and that although there are Ukrainian artists he likes, there aren't enough of them to fill his listening habits." Other students simply answered 'I just like it.' Without any further explanation or argument.

The Consequences of Listening to Russian Music

In a January 2024 video, Ekonomichna Pravda noted that it's exactly the users who continue consuming Russian content from abroad who are funding the war. Russians, after all, don't receive monetization for streams or views within Russia itself.

An Ekonomichna Pravda journalist has explained that Russian content creators earn money from Ukrainian views and streams, then pay taxes on that income to the Russian state budget.

As of early 2024, Ukrainians "transferred" roughly $5 million to Russia's state budget — enough money to have purchased 10,000 drones for further attacks on Ukraine.