Bon Jovi has responded with a stamp of approval to a viral video showing Ukrainians listening to the band while preparing to fight amid the country's war with Russia.
The video was first posted on Twitter by Olexander Scherba, Ukraine's former ambassador to Austria, earlier this week.
"#Odesa preparing fortifications & getting ready to fight," the tweet read. "Will someone show this to @BonJovi please?"
It wasn't long before the band noticed the video, which shows hundreds of people working together to pass boxes of supplies from one another to the back of a truck while Bon Jovi's hit single "It's My Life" blares from speakers.
"This is for the ones who stood their ground ... Odessa, Ukraine. #SlavaUkraini," Bon Jovi wrote in a retweet of the video.
Bon Jovi is not the first band to endorse the use of its music as a battle cry. Earlier in March reports emerged that Ukrainians had been singing Twisted Sister's 1984 single "We're Not Gonna Take It" as a way of conveying a message of defiance in response to the crisis, gaining the approval of Twisted Sister's Dee Snider.
"I absolutely approve of Ukrainians using 'We're Not Gonna Take It' as their battlecry," he tweeted. "My grandfather was Ukrainian, before it was swallowed up by the USSR after WW2. This can't happen to these people again!"
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion into Ukraine on Feb. 24. Since the attack, which Putin has labeled as a "special military mission," hundreds have died and millions have fled or attempted to escape the country. According to statistics, the United Nations recorded 2,571 civilian casualties including children in the country — 977 were killed and a further 1,594 injured.
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.