Ukrainian ballerinas perform anti-Putin Swan Lake in front of tanks

In Odessa four brave cygnets danced to Tchaikovsky's music in front of military tanks.

The Ukrainian ballerinas were outside Odessa's military history museum, and, reports The Moscow Times, “was a nod to a Soviet-era tradition” when “state-run television traditionally aired classical music during periods of great change in the Soviet Union.”

Oleksiy Honcharenko, who presents the event on the YouTube clip, said,

For millions of Soviet people, a televised performance of  Swan Lake signaled a change in the country's leadership — either the death of the Secretary-General, or his ouster as a result of a coup.

Because Vladimir Putin has made a fatal mistake by unleashing aggression against Ukraine, today Odessa, as a cultural capital, performs for him this portentous work.

The video was relayed on Ukrainian television last Wednesday, and soon after was put up online.

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano') about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman's Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia' column for Dancing Times magazine.