Machete is a Ukrainian rock band founded by Yaroslav Maly, the frontman of the band "TOKiO", in Kyiv in 2011.
In December 2013, Maly supported Ukrainians demonstrating in central Kyiv and urged the authorities not to allow bloodshed. In February 2015, Yaroslav Maly and his family left Russia and moved to Kyiv:
It is simply impossible to stay there (in Russia) due to such an immense amount of lies. We decided that both for us and for our children, the right thing would be to be here right now, in order to support our country, as I am a citizen of Ukraine. And so that they grow up in a democratic society
In 2015, against the backdrop of the Russo-Ukrainian war, Maly and "TOKiO" recorded the album War and Peace in Ukraine, addressing the conflict between the two nations.
Despite sharp criticism from Russian state propaganda and his move to Ukraine, in 2019 the band resumed their musical activities in the Russian Federation with the ambition of uniting the two peoples through their songs and "building a temple of unity and purity":
From childhood, we are told that this world is simply the way it is. We are little people and cannot change anything. That hatred, fear, and aggression are completely normal. That is not true; everything is within our power. We are builders of the universe and artists. Step by step, song by song, brick by brick, we are building a temple of unity, love, purity, and goodwill... It is time for us to awaken. We need one another. That is the sole reason why we are doing this
Yaroslav Maly relocated with his family to live in the Altai region of Russia.
In 2020, in an interview with Ukrayinska Pravda, Yaroslav Maly characterized the war in eastern Ukraine instigated by Russia as a "political war, a war of business elites, rather than between ordinary peoples." He also commented on Volodymyr Zelenskyy:
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has only one single desire — to do something good for the people, that is a sincere desire. He lacks political experience. His predecessors possessed experience, but they had no desire to do anything good for the people. And right now, as I see it, his team and close circle simply have to brush off attacks and 'plug holes' through which everything leaks. I know for certain that these guys don't steal money. I know for sure that they treat what the people entrusted them with with absolute seriousness
He also commented on the president of Russia, noting that Putin possesses powerful energy and is completely disinterested in military conflict, but rather, "he is the one who wants to bring all this to an end."
Machete's Stance on the War in Ukraine
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, members of the band Machete offered no comments regarding the so-called SMO, adopting a stance of deliberate silence. For a while, the musicians disappeared from public discourse. However, in April 2023, the band announced a tour across Russia.
Both prior to and following the announcement of tour dates across Russian cities, Machete encountered severe backlash and hatred from pro-war Russian Z-patriots. In July 2023, Vitaly Borodin, head of the "Federal Project for Security and Anti-Corruption", launched an investigation into Yaroslav Maly regarding potential financial aid to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On July 29, 2023, Machete's concert in Saint Petersburg as part of the "Akustika Schastya" festival was canceled "due to reasons beyond our control."
In 2024, their concerts in Moscow and Saint Petersburg were once again canceled. Maly commented on this decision on his social networks: "The situation continues to unfold in such a manner that we cannot act the way we would wish to. Why is this happening? Probably because we maintain our own independent perspective on the events being broadcast to us..."
