The Classical Music and Wine Appreciation Club invites you to a special inspiring session featuring artist, songwriter, and storyteller Kelsie Kimberlin.

Join us as we explore “Champ“ — a powerful story of resilience, hope, and the incredible ability of music to unite people around the world. Experience real stories, real music, and real impact.

Date: Saturday, September 26, 2026

Time: 10:30 AM

Host: Classical Music and Wine Appreciation Club

Join us for music, conversation, and community. Support artists. Build a kinder world.

#KelsieKimberlin #MusicSpotlight #Champ #RealStories #PowerOfMusic #ClassicalMusicAndWine #LiveEvent

At The Chain NYC Film Festival
August 12, 2026 at 7:00 pm
312 West 36 Street (between 8th and 9th Avenue) Floor 4
New York, NY 10018
Q&A to follow with Kelsie Kimberlin, Director Andrii Voloshyn, and other film team members

The must-see documentary The Last Message has taken the global film festival circuit by storm, earning 40 awards and selections across six categories and rave reviews.

This powerful film follows American-Ukrainian singer Kelsie Kimberlin after the death of her 21-year-old cousin in Ukraine as she travels to the front lines to find answers. Through her journey, she discovers that every Ukrainian has a similar story, yet they all face their loss with dignity and resilience. Along the way, Kelsie delivers humanitarian supplies and drones to soldiers on the front lines, sharing her music with them and shedding light on the war’s painful reality through honest conversations with the Ukrainian heroes she encounters. It’s a powerful film that breaks your heart and then rebuilds your spirit. It’s a story of Ukrainian resistance, resilience, and restorative justice. In the end, Kelsie’s personal journey becomes a global quest for accountability against evil.

Come See The New York Premiere Of “The Last Message”

DIRECTED BY Andrii Voloshyn & Oleksii Liebiediev
FEATURING Kelsie Kimberlin

IN THEATERS ON OCTOBER 6, 2026
IN LOS ANGELES AT LAEMMLE ROYAL THEATER

SYNOPSIS

In The Last Message, Kelsie Kimberlin travels to Ukraine to uncover why her 21-year-old cousin Andrii Rachok was killed by Russian forces during their full-scale invasion. Kelsie, a popular American-Ukrainian singer, struggles to record her song Star in his memory, realizing she must first seek absolution and witness Ukraine’s fight herself. Along the Ukrainian frontline, she meets soldiers, commanders, luminaries, and ordinary citizens enduring Russia’s unjust war, and visits Andrii’s gravesite amid drone and missile attacks. Through her journey, she discovers that Andrii has forgiven her and that every Ukrainian is a star and hero, defending their country with courage and resilience. Ultimately, Kelsie transforms her personal loss into a story about justice and accountability for all Ukrainians.

DIRECTED, WRITTEN AND EDITED BY Andrii Voloshyn
DIRECTED BY Oleksii Liebiediev
PRODUCED BY Andrii Samerkhanov
EXECUTIVE PRODUCED BY Kateryna Malofieieva
SCREENWRITER Marharyta Vlasova

FEATURING Kelsie Kimberlin

Press Stills

Publicity Contact:
42West | TheLastMessage@42West.com

When singer-songwriter Kelsie Kimberlin of Bethesda visited Ukraine in the early 2020s to film music videos, her younger cousin Andrii Rachok (she called him by his nickname, Andrusha) was never far from her side. They had bonded as children, filling Kimberlin’s frequent trips to Ukraine, where her mother was born, with adventures in the countryside.

So when Rachok told her in 2023 that he had decided to enlist in the Ukrainian armed forces to fight against the Russian invasion, Kimberlin tried to dissuade him. The two argued, and it was one of the last times they spoke. He joined the service that year and was 21 when he was killed on the front lines in February 2024 during a Russian airstrike.

“Every Ukrainian has an Andrusha story,” says Kimberlin, now 26.

Kimberlin’s October 2024 journey to visit Rachok’s grave and the front lines of the Russia-Ukraine war is the focus of the documentary The Last Message, which Kimberlin worked on and starred in, and which shows her in the studio writing music. She made the film to amplify Ukrainian voices on the front lines, to advocate for continued U.S. support and to showcase the resilience of the Ukrainians. Kimberlin says the film was funded by donations from several organizations, many of which are based in Ukraine.

The pop singer-songwriter regularly intertwines her art with personal causes. She’s penned songs about women, gun violence and LGBTQ+ community rights. Her YouTube channel has more than 200,000 subscribers, with multiple videos topping 1 million views.

“I feel like when you have music and you add politics into it, it kind of makes ita little more lighthearted, and people understand a little bit more, versus going to listen to some newscaster guy being like, ‘This is what happened today,’ ” Kimberlin says.

Kimberlin filmed three music videos for her songs in Ukraine in 2023 after the invasion and revisited the country in September 2025 to film for her song “Dream of Peace,” which she says premiered at the Concert for Peace at International Peace Day in Los Angeles that month.

Kimberlin’s path to The Last Message began in 2024, when she targeted some Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives in an Instagram video after they voted to withhold funding from Ukraine. Her words caught the attention of Ukrainian filmmakers familiar with her work in the country, who said they’d like to help her document life on the front lines. In the film, she interviews activists, soldiers, famous Ukrainian figures and everyday people.

“Where I fought through song and video, he took up arms to defend Ukraine,” Kimberlin says in the film when speaking about her cousin.

Through drone, cellphone and professional camera footage, Kimberlin tracks her journey to visit her cousin’s grave. She worked with a production company based in Ukraine and says she received access to ride along with Ukrainian special forces to film in a war zone, showing the depth of the damage to infrastructure from the war— homes, schools, churches, hospitals—while navigating real-time threats to her safety from attacks. During her travels, she helped evacuate her and Rachok’s grandparents from the village of Raipoli following the threat of increased bombings.

A letter to the World: “It has been one year since an unjust war struck my beloved Ukraine”

Kelsie Kimberlin Filming for Peace

Below: Kimberlin at the famous stele—adorned with flags and patches from Ukrainian military divisions—at the entrance of the Donetsk region

Speaking with a Ukrainian woman who lost her leg to a mine

Visiting with children at a Ukrainian orphanage close to the front line

In presenting the horrors of war, Kimberlin says she wants The Last Message to be a story of resilience. Parallel to the destruction, film footage captures sunny open fields and relics of the history of Ukraine. “The craziest thing about Ukraine … despite them being in the middle of a war, they have cleaner streets than we do. And they take care of everything. They keep it clean, no matter what. If there’s debris and something goes off, there are people putting in efforts to immediately clean their country,” Kimberlin says. “Even on the front lines, there’s mom-and-pop shops making meals for people and soldiers.”

Andrii Samerkhanov, a producer on the film who lives in Ukraine, says, “Kelsie is like a fire. When we put out a message for anyone to hear us and share our voices [after the invasion], we found Kelsie.” He says Kimberlin became a prominent activist in Ukraine and speaks in awe of her bravery to arrive at the front lines. “She’s become a national figure here, everyone knows her,” Samerkhanov says.

Outside of filmmaking, Kimberlin’s support of Ukraine includes working with families and schools as they rebuild their communities following Russian attacks, visiting with Ukrainian amputees at Medical Center Orthotics & Prosthetics in Silver Spring, and shining a spotlight on notable Ukrainian figures through interviews she posts on YouTube.

Kimberlin hopes The Last Message will be included in upcoming film festivals. Through the film, she wants to confront political apathy toward the war in Ukraine. She hopes viewers will see the dire need for aid and take action to support the country. “I wanted to bring light to what’s actually happening and what’s being overshadowed by showing people’s truth, resilience and actual stories [in Ukraine],” she says. “My main goal is to wake people up and ask, what side of history do we want to be on?”

Kelsie Kimberlin Releases “Champ”

Kelsie Kimberlin Releases “Sucker”

Neros joined a series of American drone companies trying to capitalize on the huge demand for drones, opens new tab in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, where thousands of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been deployed at unprecedented scale to track enemy forces, guide artillery and bomb targets.

Founded by former professional drone racers Soren Monroe-Anderson and Olaf Hichwa, Neros said it had designed, manufactured and shipped drones to the battlefield in Ukraine within months of the company’s launch.

It is currently producing hundreds of drones a month, and plans to use the funding for hiring and scaling up production.

Neros competes with Chinese drone makers that currently dominate the Ukraine market at cheaper prices. With its systems priced in the low four figures, Neros said it aims to be cost effective while using non-Chinese supply chains.

The company said it is also in conversation with the U.S. Department of Defense about using its vehicles across the Army, Air Force and special forces.

Drone startup Neros raises funding from Sequoia, eyes supplies to Ukraine, US military

“What we really want is a cost-effective, performing product that serves Ukraine and the DoD combined, and no one’s accomplished that yet,” Neros CEO Monroe-Anderson said in an interview.

This deal also marks Sequoia Capital’s continued bet on defense tech, a sector it first joined other Silicon Valley venture capital firms in investing in last year.

“I think Neros is already best designed in the world for their class,” said Shaun Maguire, the Sequioa partner who led the deal.
“The next step is having more skilled supply chain purchase, having as much as possible be from U.S. suppliers and all of it from Western suppliers.”

The Kelsie Kimberlin Foundation is raising money for this special drone project.

In The Last Message, Kelsie Kimberlin Travels To Ukraine

Photos Powerful Rock Anthem The Song Armageddon

Kelsie Kimberlin’s “Armageddon” Submitted To The Grammys In The “Song For Social Change” Category

Kelsie filmed the music video at the locations of the worst atrocities in Bucha, Irpin, and Kyiv during martial law, while air raid sirens were blaring, and drones and missiles were being shot down overhead. She is the first artist to be granted permission to film a music video in these areas under military control. “President Zelensky’s Grammy speech was my clarion call to travel to Ukraine so I could bear witness to the suffering of the people and the horrors of the war, and then use my music and my global platform to share that with the world so more support would flow to Ukraine to bring a faster total victory,” Kelsie said. The video begins with Kelsie watching the President’s Grammy speech and then taking action.

With all the buzz about “Armageddon,” Kelsie was invited by a Grammy voting member to submit the song to the Recording Academy of the United States for consideration for a Grammy in the “Song for Social Change” category. The war against Ukraine is one of the most important issues in the world today and, according to the Academy, songs considered in this category “recognize creators of message-driven music that responds to the social issues of our time and has the potential for positive global impact.” “Armageddon” does just that.

Along with the release of “Armageddon,” Kelsie has launched the Kelsie Kimberlin Foundation to support Ukraine in four areas:

1. help reconstruct Ukraine starting with a state-of-the-art medical facility
2. build an online crowd-funding platform to allow everyone to adopt a village, town or city in Ukraine to reconstruct
3. support Ukrainian musicians and their families who have been impacted by the war, and
4. create a rapid response fund to quickly react to emergencies on a citizen level.

KelsieKimberlinFoundation.org

Kelsie Kimberlin – Armageddon Lyrics

Kelsie Kimberlin – Armageddon (official song release)

Kelsie arrived in Kyiv to martial law, air raid sirens, and attacks by drones and missiles which were destroyed by anti-missile batteries overhead. Despite these terror attacks, she filmed “Armageddon” in Bucha, Irpin, and Kyiv at many of the places where the worst atrocities by the Russian army took place in February and March, 2022. Because many of these locations were under military control, her team had to get permission to film there. Kelsie is the only foreign artist to be granted such permission. Following many days of arduous filming, she was given a commendation by a branch of the Armed forces for using her music to protect Ukraine. She was given a gift from an aide to President Zelensky in gratitude for her work. And the Ukrainian Armed Forces media conducted the first interview with a foreign artist for its flagship publication.

Kelsie Kimberlin – Armageddon (Official Video) | Bucha, Irpin & Kyiv War Zones

“Although I was aware of the risks, I knew I had to visit Ukraine so I could see for myself the horrors inflicted on Ukraine. I knew that I could only film these videos at authentic locations in order to convey the gravity of the war and portray to the world the absolute importance of a complete victory for Ukraine to its rightful international borders. I knew that I had to hear the stories of those affected by the war in order to give voice to those stories. As I did, the hair on my body stood on end,” said Kelsie.

Photos Powerful Rock Anthem The Song Armageddon

While in Ukraine, Kelsie met with war refugees, visited a military hospital and displaced animal shelter, talked with many soldiers on duty in various locations, and listened to story after story of victims of the war, including women and children who were raped and tortured after their loved ones were brutally killed in the Kyiv suburbs. She saw many destroyed churches, a bombed cultural center, hundreds of decimated homes and apartments, dozens of mangled parks and playgrounds, and streets pockmarked with tens of thousands of mortar hits and shrapnel scars.

Kelsie Kimberlin – Armageddon Lyrics

The song “Armageddon” will be released on all music platforms on August 31, 2023, and the video will be released on YouTube on September 8^th. The Kelsie Kimberlin Foundation will be collecting donations in conjunction with the release of all of the songs she filmed in Ukraine. Those donations will be used to help rebuild Ukraine, provide medical help and rehabilitation for those injured in the war, and to garner further support for Ukraine.

Kelsie Kimberlin Releases Her New Music Video, Armageddon, Filmed In Ukraine

“Every day, I see atrocities committed against Ukraine and finally I just had to go and show my support. I want to wrap my arms around the whole country in a giant protective hug and tell everyone it will be ok. So my plans are to visit troops, a hospital for the injured, a refugee center, an orphanage, and a displaced animal shelter. At the same time, I will give press interviews and meet with top political leaders to both listen and to see what more I can do to help spread the word about the needs of Ukraine,” said Kelsie.

Photos Kelsie Kimberlin Humanitarian Work

Kelsie is a popular American-Ukrainian singer who, since the start of the great war, has taken many actions to show support for Ukraine. In more than a dozen music videos and YouTube shorts, she has implored people everywhere to become aware, get involved and donate. She has given countless interviews on radio and television doing the same. Her music video about Ukraine, “Spoof I Wonder” has been viewed more than 350,000 times and received massive radio play.

Her “I Am Ukrainian” video, a plea to the world, has been very well received. She and her family in America have sponsored and housed at least a dozen war refugees. And now she is taking the next step to visit Ukraine herself. She will film music videos of her songs, Armageddon, Catharsis, Turn Back, and possibly others.

Kelsie will be blogging while in Ukraine on her many social media pages and a film crew will be documenting her trip. She will visit some of the most tragic areas around Kyiv, including Bucha and Irpin where the enemy slaughtered and tortured innocent civilians in 2022. She asks everyone to follow her.

Kelsie Kimberlin Goes To Ukraine To Show Her Support

Table of Contents

Now it’s your chance to flip the track “Reflection” and take it in your own direction. Besides rewards, Kelsie Kimberlin will be picking the winners that will be included in her upcoming Remix Package as an Official Remix.

What sound is Kelsie Kimberlin looking for?

We’re mostly looking for music with a dance feel, but we welcome all remixes that harness ‘the sound of the Reflection mood’.

The prizes

1st place: You will win a 250 USD compensation for your work, remix promo at Spotify, Itunes and other music platforms as well as social media.

2nd place: You will receive 150 USD compensation for your work, remix promo at Spotify, Itunes and other music platforms as well as social media.

3rd place: You will receive 100 USD compensation for your work, remix promo at Spotify, Itunes and other music platforms as well as social media.

Excited? Here’s how you can enter:

Step 1: Download the stems here and create your best remix.

Step 2: Submit your remix before February 11, 2022.

Step 3: We aim to announce the winner(s) approximately two weeks after the contest ends.

Rules

1. You must follow @kelsiekimberlin on Instagram and YouTube.

2. The Contest Submission period begins at 16:30 EST January 24 and ends at 23:59 EST on February 11, 2022.

3. Remixes may ONLY be shared on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, SoundCloud and Twitter.

4. Send the link to downloadable mp3 192kbps file of your Remix to remix@kelsiekimberlin.com. We prefer wetransfer.com

Please name your tracks this way:

Kelsie Kimberlin – Reflection (Your Name-Remix)

Please don’t forget to send your contact information – your name, email address, social media link.

Additional information

Genre: Alternative Pop

Deadline: February 11, 2022

Prizes: Cash, Promo, Release

BPM: 121