Famed graffiti artist Banksy unveiled a new mural on Friday on the side of a destroyed building in Borodyanka, a Ukrainian town that was heavily shelled and then later occupied by Russian forces in the early days of the war.
The anonymous artist, known for his often-political, guerilla-style street art, revealed the new piece on social media, but photos show that there may be other Banksy pieces in Ukraine that the artist didn’t immediately disclose.
In an Instagram post, Banksy shared photos of the artwork, depicting a young gymnast performing a handstand while balancing on a pile of concrete rubble.
A second mural was spotted in Borodyanka in Banksy’s signature spray-painted style, Reuters reported, though the artist didn’t share the piece on social media. The artwork depicts a judo spar between a small child and a man. The child, firmly planted, flips the larger man over his head — a scene similar to the biblical story of David and Goliath.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who holds a black belt in judo, is not shy about his public love of the sport. Reuters writes that the “symbolism of the piece was unmistakable.”
In March, Russia targeted the sleepy commuter village of Borodyanka with a series of missiles and powerful FAB-250 bombs, which are designed to destroy large military targets, none of which existed in the small town.
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High-rise buildings were cleaved in two by the force of the detonations as Russian forces advanced through the town and on toward Kyiv. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova reported a death toll of more than 120 people and deemed the situation in Borodyanka the worst in the region in terms of civilian casualties.
Russian soldiers occupied the town for weeks until it was liberated by Ukraine in April. Two hundred buildings were left completely or partially destroyed.
A third unconfirmed Banksy work was found on the outskirts of Kyiv, near the site of a notorious massacre of hundreds of civilians, the BBC reported. The piece, which was spotted in the neighbourhood of Irpin, shows a rhythmic gymnast wearing a neck brace performing with a ribbon. She is balanced on top of a gaping hole on the side of a building.
Irpin lies at the doorstep of Kyiv and was the site of a deadly Russian occupation in March when forces swept through the area. The BBC reports that around 290 civilians were killed, many shot by Russian forces during a month of terror in the town’s southwestern quarter, witnesses said.
A fourth unconfirmed work was spotted north of Irpin in the Hostomel neighbourhood of the Kyiv region. The mural shows a person in a dressing gown with hair curlers and wearing a gas mask, holding a fire extinguisher. The person is standing on top of an abandoned chair and was spray-painted on the mustard-yellow wall of a destroyed building.
A fifth potential Banksy mural was found in Kyiv and shows two children sitting on a concrete roadblock known as a “hedgehog” that is used as an anti-tank measure. The children sit at different heights, giving the impression that they are using the concrete slabs as a see-saw.
Aside from the social media post, the elusive artist has not publicly commented on the multiple artworks scattered throughout the war-torn country.
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