When we filmed one of my songs in northern Ukraine - shortly before the war - there was peace and quiet. We traveled freely around the country, and there was light in the eyes of the Ukrainians we spoke to. A country exhibiting considerable progress and with lots of hope for the future. In the video at the time, I let the Soviet flag fall to the ground as a symbol that freedom and democracy had triumphed over dictatorship and oppression. Although the Russian regime convulsively tries to hold on to the past and their petrified view of people and the world, I have no doubt that the light in the eyes of the Ukrainians is now even stronger, and that with our help they will chase the ghost out again. Here on the anniversary of the invasion, I have raised the Ukrainian flag in my garden and I think of the Ukrainians we met and who helped us, and that now it is our turn to help them all we can. - MW