- Social media users are rallying to replace a Ukrainian man's record collection.
- A news report about how Russian soldiers destroyed his 500 vinyls inspired the effort.
The internet is rallying in support of Ukraine, this time with a unique cultural mission: to replenish one man's precious vinyl collection.
According to Ukrainian state broadcaster Suspilne, an astonished Vasyl Solyanyk has started receiving sound equipment and records in their dozens from all over the world.
The bizarre development all started with an earlier report by Suspilne, in which Solyanyk was interviewed about the Russian occupation of his village — including his own home — last year.
Solyanyk showed the broadcaster what was left of his record collection after the Russians left.
The 500-strong collection, which he started in 1982, included imported rarities by artists like BB King and Manfred Mann, he said.
Footage showed him displaying warped, muddied discs in what remained of his home in Kamianka, a small village south of Izyum.
Last weekend, Suspilne's story was posted to r/Ukraine, Reddit's 900,000-strong message board about the country.
That galvanized one corner of the platform, where users quickly decided to help Solyanyk.
"I want to bring his music back," Mitchell Hindrum, 27, told Business Insider.
A US Marine veteran and record collector himself, Hindrum is passionate about what Solyanyk, and Ukrainians in general, have gone through at the hands of the Russians.
"So we decided to send him some records," he said.
Things moved fast after Hindrum set up the subreddit r/VinylForVasyl.
One user said they had tracked down Solyanyk's contact details; another said they'd spoken to him and started figuring out the best way to navigate Ukraine's postal service.
Soon, a Kyiv-based record store said they were on board, promising to receive and forward the vinyls.
Another redditor, "DoctorOctagonapus," asked after Solyanyk's record player — "his player and setup might well be in an equally sorry state," they wrote.
A Google Sheet lists many of the missing records and provides fields for people to put their names next to. As of Thursday, dozens of albums were already pledged — including classics by Deep Purple, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, Ozzy Osbourne, and the Rolling Stones.
Facebook users also started organizing. One member of a vinyl collectors' group also said they'd spoken to Solyanyk and posted his wish list there.
Solyanyk told Suspilne he's received records from the US, the UK, Poland, and from all over Ukraine.
He added that didn't want anyone to spend money on the project, saying that Ukraine needs to win the war first. (Insider was unable to contact Solyanyk directly.)
"We're going to find every last record he has listed," Hindrum told Business Insider. "Probably a new record player too."
He acknowledged that Solyanyk's problems clearly run deeper than a missing record collection.
"The video of Vasyl shows a devastated man sifting through the aftermath of his previously occupied home," he said. "The Russians had torn the place apart."
Solyanyk returned to his home village of Kamianka, just south of Izyum, after Ukraine's lightning counteroffensive of fall 2022, according to Suspilne's report.
There, he says, he found his home had been struck by two shells, the windows and roof damaged. Unexploded "petal" or "butterfly" mines were littered throughout, he said.
Meanwhile, Russians had occupied his house, rifled through his belongings, and used the upstairs rooms as a toilet, he told the outlet.
Months after Russian forces were chased out of the area, residents told Ukrainska Pravda they were still finding landmines, and many of those who returned found their homes destroyed.
The injustice has stung Hindrum. "As Vasyl said in the original Ukrainian story, he was living, fishing, hunting, and keeping bees. Bothering no one and listening to his records."
The effort to replace the vinyls is "a powerful symbol of support for all Ukraine," he said.