Aleksandr Mikitenko is an indie-underground singer-songwriter, musician and translator from Odessa, Ukraine, who became a refugee along with his family because of the Russian-Ukrainian war and eventually settled in Toronto, Canada. He was a member of a huge Russian-speaking underground punk-rock community and best known as a leader of Istok, a band, that for decades has been playing music influenced by forceful alternative rock, impassioned punk and lyrically searching, singer-songwriter folk. He is also a co-founder of a lo-fi/post-punk duo Libertango along with his wife Marina Polianskaia, who were true followers of the All Wave Philosophy.