How ‘Oi!’ defines British punk and Ukrainian soul

Ukrainian and English ‘Oi’ differ in origin, history, and usage — one has ancient roots and centuries-old traditions, while the other is a modern expression with a different meaning and usage.

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Yurii ‘Utyug’ Demydenko performing live in Kyiv. 2025. Photo from ‘Stinx’ Instagram.

KYIV, Ukraine — ‘Oi!’ exclaimed a Ukrainian punk rock veteran, nicknamed ‘Utyug’ (which is Russian for iron). It was a natural Ukrainian response to a question about him becoming a punk rocker.

Born in Chernihiv, a northern Ukrainian city close to the Russian border, Yuriy ‘Utyug’ Demydenko was exposed to the punk image in the same way many kids his age were — through the power of Western media. “It literally starts with Schwarzenegger’s character taking clothes from two punks… and it just looked cool. At the time, it was something unbelievable,” recalled Yuriy, referencing The Terminator.

Fast forward to 2026 and Yuriy’s punk rock band ‘Stinx’ released its fifth studio album, marking its 20th anniversary.

Yuriy spent almost his whole life playing punk rock and knows the genre, culture and image probably better than anyone. While his band never saw major commercial success, Yuriy is a veteran, a living legend among the Ukrainian punk-rock underground scene. He has always stayed authentic to the true anti-establishment spirit of punk.

Punk subculture emerged in the early 1970s in the U.S. and the UK from the punk-rock music genre and is rooted in non-conformity and the promotion of individual freedom. While Western punks rebelled against capitalist consumerism, in the totalitarian Soviet Union, this music was seen as a threat to the regime. Underground bands faced censorship, police harassment, or even imprisonment just for playing songs that didn’t align with state ideology. Despite that, punk rock successfully infiltrated the Iron Curtain in the early 1980s, spreading across the former Soviet Union, including Ukraine.

Characterized by short, fast-tempo songs with simplistic melodies and lyrics about social issues, the genre proved popular with freedom-loving Ukrainians. According to Ukrainian music critic Oleksandr Yevtushenko, there was already an established punk-rock scene in Ukraine by the 1980s.

As the Soviet Union began to collapse, the global punk scene fractured into dozens of subgenres. In Ukraine, a younger generation of musicians wasn’t looking for complex art rock — they wanted something raw and authentic. For Yuriy, coming of age in the provincial border city of Chernihiv, that meant gravitating toward the most uncompromising, street-level styles of punk: hardcore and street punk. Since his first visit to a sweaty, underground show, he knew that’s what he wanted to do.

While Yuriy doesn’t look like the stereotypical punk from the 1970s and 1980s, he still dresses like hardcore ‘Oi!’ bands — black jeans, leather boots and a slight mohawk haircut, be it without dyed hair. Yuriy would absolutely fit among punks of East London or New York in the glory days of punk rock.

His style is very much continuous: influenced by the West, he was dressing like a punk back in his youth days. “The image factor was very important to us, punks… I’ve been dressing punk since 13 years old,” explained Yuriy.

Ukrainians have been saying ‘oi’ for more than a couple hundred years, and for them, it’s part of everyday language. The expression survived even during the times of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union when there were outright bans on Ukrainian language and folklore in favor of state-approved Russian ones. “Oi!” was the working class’ attempt at voicing discontent about the direction and the social issues of their country. Ukrainian punks have also embraced the usage of a simple but powerful word, ‘oi.’

The story of ‘oi’ is the story of how one phonetically similar expression came to mean different things in two cultures.

In the English language, ‘oi’ is mainly used as a way to get someone’s attention, usually calling them out when you’re irritated. Originating within the working class crowd of East London in the 1930s, the expression may trace its roots to the Norman French word ‘oyer.’

When descendants of this crowd began playing punk rock, ‘Oi!’ became its own movement and, thanks to British journalist Garry Bushell, came to refer to an entire subgenre of punk rock. Bushell reportedly got the idea after hearing the song “Oi! Oi! Oi!” by the punk band the Cockney Rejects.

For them, the movement was less about musical theory and more about class politics. As Jeff ‘Stinky’ Turner, leader of the Cockney Rejects once said, “Oi! is working class and if you’re not working class, you’ll get a kick in the bollocks.”

Across Europe and decades later, that exact ethos resonated deeply with Yuriy in Ukraine. Though separated by geography and history, the core requirement of the subculture remained identical: authenticity.

“I think the music itself is secondary in this movement. What really matters is that sense of street culture and working-class background; those are the core elements for them,” Yuriy said.

Yet for Yuriy, the connection runs deeper than punk music itself. He sees Ukrainian identity as inherently rebellious, borrowing one half of its spirit from the Cossacks, the free warrior communities in Ukrainian history, and another from the working-class ethos that shaped British ‘Oi!’

After moving to Kyiv, Yuriy formed Stinx, the band that would define the next two decades of his life. The group released five albums, toured extensively and even shared stages with Western punk acts such as The Queers and The Vibrators.

“It’s still surreal — listening to their records and then suddenly playing on the same stage,” Yuriy said.

‘Stinx’ 20th anniversary concert in Kyiv. 2025. Photo provided by Yuriy.

In Ukrainian, the expression “oi” (oй) has long been part of everyday speech and culture. It serves a wide range of emotions: surprise (Oi! What happened?), pain (Oi, it hurts), admiration (Oi, that’s incredible), sympathy or regret (Oi, I’m so sorry), anxiety or shock (Oi, god), exhaustion (Oiiii) and even as a polite way to get attention or make a request (Oi, could you help me?) Used to highlight feelings, it has found itself among the unintentional, exclamatory parts of the Ukrainian language. Depending on the speaker’s tone and intention, ‘oi’ can often mean opposite emotions, highlighting the many nuances of spoken Ukrainian.

“As a natural sound of emotion, ‘oi’ in Ukrainian continued to be used because it fulfilled the need for emotional expression,” explained Roman Veretenyk, a Ukrainian-Canadian professor of English language and literature from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He also explained that the way the Ukrainians use the word ‘oi’ has no direct analog in spoken English.

Yuriy “Utyug” at a concert in Kyiv. 2025. Photo provided by Yuriy.

While the ‘Oi!’ punk rock movement is the cornerstone of the rebellious anti-authoritarian spirit, the struggle is much older than the 1970s or the working class itself.

There are a great number of Ukrainian folk songs with ‘oi’ in the lyrics that were written during the 16th and 17th centuries, when Ukrainian people were oppressed by the Polish and Russian empires. An important part of Ukrainian oral tradition, the expression was used in Cossack ballads, laments and wedding songs, among others.

Yuriy says those older traditions can still be heard in contemporary Ukrainian music. Melodies have their own unique structure, rooted in older folk songs and traditions. Even in Ukrainian punk rock, that influence comes naturally, like some sort of cultural code.

“For example, our song ‘Punk Rock Is Alive’ sounds almost like a folk song in its melody — it could easily have become traditional music if it had been written 200 years ago,” Yuriy explained.

On the video: Stinx - ‘Punk rock is alive.’ Live performance in 2020.

Even with all that success, Yuriy doesn’t forget his folk-tradition roots and the ‘Oi!’ attitude. He’s still involved in the Kyiv punk rock scene, both playing and working as a sound engineer. For him, it’s an essential part of who he is as a person. Furthermore, he is passing on the “punk rock torch,” teaching and influencing young and upcoming bands who come to play their first shows.

“There’s a punk band in Ukraine that has existed for 20 years, with five full albums and five EPs. That proves it wasn’t for nothing,” Yuriy said cheerfully.

When Yuriy answers with a casual ‘oi,’ he probably isn’t thinking about medieval folk songs or British working-class punk. Yet somehow both histories live inside that single syllable.

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By Mariana Stadnyk

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

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The possibility was confirmed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron. Merz underscored: “We are currently producing too little — and this can be offset by granting licenses to companies that have the necessary production capacity…These include both European and Ukrainian companies.”

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CAT OF CONFLICT:

Zoriana’s friend came across this morning cat on her way to work. He was dozing so sweetly on the windowsill, basking in the sun, that he didn’t even notice her.

Stay safe out there.

Best,
Petro