Banksy, a well-known graffiti-artist, has released his latest work on a building in Ukraine that was damaged by shelling.
Banksy shared a picture of the artwork on Instagram. The image showed a gymnast performing a handstand amongst debris in Borodyanka.
There were murals found in and around Kyiv in Ukraine. This led to speculation that the unknown artist was working in this war-torn nation.
Another depicts a man who looks like Vladimir Putin being defeated at Judo, but this is not official.
Three photos of the gymnast mural were uploaded by the graffiti artist in the rubble left behind by Russian shelling. The caption simply read “Borodyanka Ukraine”.
Borodyanka was the most severely affected by Russia’s bombardment on Ukraine within the immediate aftermath the invasion of 24 February.
Russian soldiers occupied the city, which is about 30 miles (48km north west of Kyiv), for weeks during the initial phase. Ukraine eventually liberated the town in April.
Borodyanka’s second piece depicts a man looking like Vladimir Putin being flipped during a match of judo with a young boy. This has not been confirmed by Banksy. Russian President is a judo blackbelt who is an admirer of the martial arts.
After the capture of the town, Jeremy Bowen (BBC News international editor) said that the destruction caused in Borodynaka by the Russians was the worst he’d seen in Ukraine.
Witnesses claimed that Russian troops stopped attempts at salvaging survivors from wrecked buildings and threatened people who wanted it with gunpoint.
BBC News heard also the story about a family member who died in a Russian strike.
Banksy appears to have painted the third artwork. It shows a female rhythmic gymnast in a neck brace. She performs with a ribbon at the top of a hole in a side wall of a building in Irpin.
The town is situated on the outskirts Kyiv. It was the location of a horrendous massacre of hundreds of civiliansby Russian troops.
A fourth work depicts two children sitting on a steel tank trap and using it to make a saw spray-painted onto a Kyiv concrete defensive block.
Banksy is a world-famous artist, yet he’s completely anonymous.
In the early 1990s, he became famous for his stencilled designs all over Bristol. However, his work has been featured in Paris and New York over the years.
The “guerrilla street art” is often described by the press as “elusive” & “secretive”. He has many fans, including A-list celebrities.