The same day, Ukraine’s Cultural Forces platform released a powerful new music video titled Chaplain. This release is more than a tribute in song; it is a gesture of transatlantic solidarity. Today, over 500 chaplains serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Many of them have received vital training from U.S. Army chaplains through programs organized by the United States Army Chaplain Corps. One of them is Chaplain Oleksa Sokil, the central figure in the music video, whose experience in those U.S.-led courses has had a profound impact on his service and spiritual leadership.
Ukraine is deeply grateful for this cooperation. The legacy of the Four Chaplains — George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, Clark V. Poling, and John P. Washington — lives on through this expression of international and interfaith solidarity and continues to strengthen our chaplaincy in the time of war.
The song Chaplain is performed by Ukrainian rock musician and soldier REMEZ, a contributor to the Cultural Forces platform. It features backing vocals by real Ukrainian military chaplains, and a guest guitar track by Josh Homme, frontman of Queens of the Stone Age. The video was filmed inside a church destroyed by Russian shelling on recently liberated Ukrainian territory — just one of more than 700 religious sites damaged during the Russo–Ukrainian war.
“A church is not always a building; it’s wherever people gather in faith,” says Chaplain Sokil, a combat veteran who resumed service a chaplain after surviving life-threatening injuries.
The story captured in the video reflects the real spiritual struggle of soldiers and honors the often-unseen work of chaplains who serve not with weapons, but with presence, prayer, and hope.
Cultural Forces is a Ukrainian platform that unites service members from creative professions, cultural figures, analysts, and volunteers. Its mission is to develop military culture, strengthen the moral and psychological resilience of soldiers, and promote cultural diplomacy and information resistance through the tools of art and culture.
The platform operates through several initiatives, including “Books to the Front,” “Frontline Studio,” “Orchestra 59,” “RadioPihota,” and more. Every month, mobile groups of artist-servicemembers deliver around 200 live performances in frontline areas and distribute approximately 1,200 books to troops.
In 2025, Cultural Forces produced and released 49 original songs created by soldiers and led several strategic communication campaigns in support of Ukraine’s Defense Forces, including “Ukraine Stands Because the Infantry Stands,” a campaign that received a prestigious Effie Award and reached an audience of over 12 million.