Banksy in Ukraine after revealing his latest artwork on Instagram.
Speculation had been mounting that the artist was in the war-torn country after a series of murals appeared in the town of Borodianka, near Kyiv. The mural that Banksy chose to reveal his presence in the country is of a female gymnast balancing on a damaged building. “Borodianka, Ukraine.”
Speculation had been mounting that the anonymous graffiti artist was in the war-torn country after a series of murals appeared in Ukrainian cities, including in the capital.
Borodianka, a town north-west of Kyiv, was pummelled by Russian bombs at the beginning of the invasion. Russian troops, rolling in from the Belarusian border 200 miles to the north, occupied the town in February. Borodianka, together with Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, was one of the towns hardest hit by Russia’s bombardments. It was liberated in April.
Ukrainian investigators found dozens of mass graves where the bodies of civilians – tortured and killed – had been buried. Moscow had unleashed cluster munitions and extremely powerful unguided bombs in the populated areas of Borodianka, destroying dozens of buildings, with some being gutted and split into two pieces.
Since then, the town has been the focus of reconstruction efforts, with several tower blocks demolished as a result of damage caused by the fighting.
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