Tantsy Minus on the war

Vyacheslav Petkun’s Position on the War in Ukraine

Following the launch of the full-scale invasion, the band «Tantsy Minus» chose a stance of silence. For a long time in interviews and on social media, Vyacheslav Petkun refrained from commenting on the war.

On February 26, 2022, at a concert in the «1930 Moscow» club, Vyacheslav Petkun shared his emotional turmoil:

I have only ever seen war in pictures, and I want to ask forgiveness from my children for what is happening right now. I would very much like to hope that when they grow up, they too will imagine war only in pictures.

Petkun did not cancel performances after the start of the so-called SMO, viewing his creative work as an opportunity to distract people from the news:

Half of my friends hold a viewpoint that is unacceptable to me. When two nations swiftly and brazenly, before the eyes of the entire world, begin slaughtering one another using bombs and missiles, for a normal person this cannot fail to evoke feelings of shame and regret. We thought about cancelling our shows. But if we can accumulate — excuse my pathos — a certain amount of warmth and kindness based on the atmosphere we know how to create, and people manage to avoid checking the news for at least an hour and a half, that is a huge plus.

From Silence to Endorsement of the "SMO"

In July 2026, Vyacheslav Petkun appeared as a guest on the podcast of war correspondent Kukushkin titled "Were You There?", where he spoke openly about his attitude toward the "SMO":

On why his position shifted and how the confrontation must end: «At some point I realized that this shouldn't merely end, but end in such a way that it never begins again. And that is possible in only one scenario: if we achieve everything we set out to accomplish in this special military operation.

On former colleagues and friends: «Many of those who left, very many of them I knew personally. And when I see those people now, who, for instance, collect money for the enemy army, in my head... I don't understand. People there are divided into two categories: scoundrels and fools.

On disillusionment with liberalism: «I wasn't prepared for the fact that this is total bogus. All these discussions about freedom, about liberalism, it's total utter rubbish.

On the Russian world: «What is the Russian world, right? The Russian world is a civilizational part of the globe... And that same Ukraine is, generally speaking, if we talk about culture, it is essentially part of the great Russian culture. There is no escaping that.

On his hesitations before traveling to the frontline to visit «SMO» fighters: «My fear is rather about what I would think of myself in the context of, for example, traveling there... I don't know how my body will react to that, truthfully. My psyche and so forth.

Regarding NATO: «That is, in my view, right now the leadership of this so-called Ukraine is virtually handing over territories to the so-called West. <...> their task, as I understand it, is to grind down against us the Ukrainian population residing there, preferably the Russian-speaking ones, and bring about the collapse of Russia.

On what was demanded of Ukrainian citizens in exchange for the promise of a «European future»: «And what is demanded in return? Nothing is demanded in return. No need to work, no need to do anything, no need to think about anything, just hate... And the harder you hate, the quicker you will become a European. The quicker you'll get the chance to enter Europe visa-free and sweep some floor over there.

The interview with war correspondent Kukushkin demonstrated that over the course of several years, Vyacheslav Petkun completely inverted his public rhetoric. From generic remarks about the tragedy of war and personal anguish, he shifted to overt endorsement of the goals of the "SMO" and began broadcasting key talking points of Russian state propaganda regarding Ukraine, the West, and the "Russian world".