Ukrainian Black Metal Band White Ward Cancel European Tour

Bummer news from the White Ward camp, as the Ukrainian progressive black metallers have been forced to cancel their upcoming European tour with Imperial Triumphant, Crowhurst and others due to current war-related travel restrictions in Ukraine. We’ll let you read the full statement from the band below, but the gist of things is that travel restrictions have become more strict in Ukraine and fewer permits to leave the country to perform are being issued.

According to their Facebook post, this has affected other Ukrainian bands including Schizogen, Bezlad, The Hypnotunez and Kazka. White Ward also stated that they will not announce a new tour until the war with Russia is over. Read their full statement below.

TOUR CANCELLATION

(Текст Українською в коментарях)

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Dear friends,

With a heavy heart, we need to inform you that our April tour is canceled. Last 2 weeks we fought for the fate of the tour. We tried all the possible ways, but the system proved to be stronger.

So, let’s make it clear about what happened and about the reasons for the cancellation.

Right now “wartime” restrictions are applied in Ukraine, and they include limitations for men in ages 18-60 to cross the border, because it is a range when men are available for military service. So, there is a need to get special permission from state authorities to travel out of Ukraine. During the year 2022 the Ministry Of Culture helped Ukrainian musicians and different artists and assisted in acquiring such permits (for a limited time) and that is why we, and many other bands, were able to play in Europe last year.

But a working algorithm that allows to control the “way back” was not created and responsibilities related to the violations of the permission terms – were nowhere written. And that is why some impudent people just used this opportunity to run out of Ukraine and decided not to come back. Very few cases are known, but after the last one, which raised a lot of noise and dissatisfaction in the media, the Ministry Of Culture decided to implement immediate changes and new rules, even for artists who have already sent a request for permit weeks before an accident – we have sent such request on February, 20th. That is the reason why many Ukrainian bands like Schizogen, Bezlad, THE HYPNOTUNEZ, KAZKA, and many more have already canceled or almost canceled their tours. Some bands were affected when they were already at the border and shows should take place the next day, but due to new rules, they were not allowed to leave Ukraine!

The new rules suppose some additional documents to a request. In our case, every member of the band has his own difficulties in acquiring that, even with an immediate start – there is no guarantee that the process will be successful and accomplished in time. Also, that is anyway not a guarantee that the request will be approved – our colleagues` request was refused even with all the requested documents. So, we just can’t get this permission and it is over.

We have tried everything, and the media noise was our last hope. But it hasn’t worked, unfortunately. Months of work, preparations, money – all this is now in vain.

We sincerely apologize to our fans, promoters, and everyone who helped us with this tour. We hope that one day we will make this tour real, and you will wait for us. We will still try to figure something out before Hellfest and August festivals, but no new tour announcements till the end of the war will be made.

But, the one and only responsible for this is russia. They broke everything by invading our country, killing our children, bombing our cities, destroying our culture, and applying all fascist methods to destroy us and we will never forget what they DID and are still DOING!