- No peak oil demand 'on the horizon', phaseout a 'fantasy': OPEC
- Sri Lanka's new leftist leader dissolves parliament, calls snap polls
- England scrum-half Mitchell to see specialist on neck injury
- Under-pressure Masood to lead Pakistan in England Tests
- Storm Helene on track to hit Florida as major hurricane
- IOC should reinstate Russia as soon it obeys rules: Samaranch
- Dior unleashes arrows and Amazons at Paris Fashion Week
- San Siro loses 2027 Champions League final due to uncertain future
- Canada's Trudeau faces no-confidence vote
- AI research uncovers 300 ancient etchings in Peru's Nazca desert
- Brazil's Lula calls Security Council makeup 'unacceptable'
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new 'extensive' strikes on Lebanon
- Carey blasts Australia to 304-7 against England in 3rd ODI
- Biden warns against clinging to power in UN farewell
- Alarm grows as Israel launches new strikes on Lebanon
- Biden warns at UN against 'full-scale war' over Lebanon
- 'Monumental step' as Thai king signs same-sex marriage into law
- French lake still riddled with bombs 80 years after World War II
- Alberta Ferretti quits as creative director at brand she founded
- Two killed in Mexico as Hurricane John weakens to tropical storm
- Multiple arrests after US woman uses machine-assisted suicide in Switzerland
- Dubois will next fight Joshua or Usyk, 'whoever pays me the most'
- Stock markets surge on China stimulus
- Lopetegui ready to learn from mistakes as Liverpool loom in League Cup
- US Fed dissenter warns inflation risks remain 'prominent'
- UN chief warns Lebanon on 'brink' as world leaders gather
- Surprise start for Libbok as Etzebeth set for Springboks record
- Ten Hag says expanded schedules make injuries 'almost unavoidable'
- Liverpool boss Slot praises Alexander-Arnold's defensive work
- Barca coach backs Pena but will debate new goalkeeper signing
- UN says tens of thousands flee Lebanon strikes
- Asian stock markets lead rally on China stimulus
- Arteta stands by defensive tactics in fiery Man City clash
- Tropical Storm John hits Mexico's Pacific coast
- Sri Lanka's new leader appoints cabinet ahead of expected snap polls
- Singapore ex-minister convicted in rare graft trial
- UK town catches Subbuteo fever
- France facing 'one of worst deficits' in its history: minister
- China's Olympic champ Zheng embraces big home expectations
- Biden bids farewell to UN, in shadow of Trump
- All Blacks seek to end Wellington jinx, with Cane poised for 100th cap
- Postbank (Постбанк) анулює рахунки українців у Німеччині
- Meryl Streep says a 'squirrel has more rights' than an Afghan girl
- Postbank terminates accounts of Ukrainians in Germany
- Hong Kong, Shanghai lead markets rally after China stimulus
- Dutch paint giant Akzonobel slashes 2,000 jobs worldwide
- Sri Lanka's new leader to call snap parliamentary polls
- In Ukraine's Pokrovsk, some quietly waiting for Russian troops
- Singapore ex-minister pleads guilty in rare graft trial
- Fishy business caught by fraying India-Bangladesh ties
RYCEF | 0.14% | 7.07 | $ | |
RBGPF | 5.16% | 60.1 | $ | |
CMSC | -0.15% | 25.0331 | $ | |
SCS | 1.21% | 13.17 | $ | |
NGG | -0.18% | 70.35 | $ | |
GSK | 0.16% | 40.925 | $ | |
BTI | 0.6% | 38.13 | $ | |
AZN | -0.27% | 76.935 | $ | |
RIO | 4.35% | 67.52 | $ | |
RELX | -0.84% | 48.455 | $ | |
VOD | -0.2% | 10.09 | $ | |
BP | -0.27% | 32.77 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.18% | 25.05 | $ | |
BCE | -0.09% | 35.07 | $ | |
BCC | -0.28% | 141.25 | $ | |
JRI | 0.67% | 13.39 | $ |
Shaken by war, Ukrainian artists 'fight with images'
Ukrainian artist Vlodko Kaufman hopes one day he will be able to stop scribbling portraits of troops killed by Russia on utility bills and old tram tickets.
"Every day I keep track of what is happening at the front, how many are killed, wounded, missing or captured," the 65-year-old said.
He matches each grim report with a quick biro headshot of the same brooding soldier on whatever paper is lying around.
On a table in his gallery in western Ukraine, Kaufman spread out hundreds of identical images of the combatant in a helmet. The most recent stretched out in rows on furniture assembly instructions, a photocopy of his passport, or a plane ticket.
"This work is a requiem that will be performed as long as the war lasts," he said.
"I will only stop drawing when the conflict is over, so who knows how many more there will be."
The artist started his project in 2014, when fighting first flared between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists in the country's east.
But since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of his country on February 24, he has been drawing with increasing regularity, he says.
Kaufman is only one of many Ukrainian artists in the relatively sheltered western city of Lviv employing their talent to record the horrors of war, call for the world's attention, or simply support those affected.
- 'We have to win' -
A short walk away, at the top of a winding wooden staircase, 49-year-old Serhiy Savchenko stood in his paint-splotched studio next to one of the few paintings he has managed to create in recent weeks.
"It's called 'Green'," he said, after the military shade that has pervaded daily life.
Dozens of tiny abstract figures representing the civilians who have signed up to fight parade across the canvas.
Savchenko said he needed to paint so he could "breathe", but these days art had taken a backseat. Requests for paintings and exhibitions would have to wait.
"We are at the top of Western interest, but we have to use it to get more aid," he said.
The established artist has transformed his gallery in Poland into a logistics centre to ship in supplies.
He spends much of his day on the phone, and his new profession sometimes involves stuffing tactical boots with medical supplies and chocolate.
"I try to invest all my artistic knowledge, all my contacts, all my time, all my health into the situation," said Savchenko, one of many improvised go-betweens hooking up donors with Ukrainians in need.
"We have to win."
As he spoke, he awaited the wife of a musician friend deployed to Mykolaiv in the embattled south of the country. She was going to pick up two sleeping bags that someone brave would drive down to him.
If nothing is done, "everybody will die," Savchenko said, eyes glistening as he recalled the thousands of lives already lost.
"We have to build the future -- a future where there will be art."
- For the children -
In another part of the city, 28-year-old Mikhailo Skop also hopes for a new dawn in which Ukraine will emerge victorious.
At the bustling Lviv Art Centre, he held up a poster from a series of war-inspired Tarot card images he has created to voice the country's woes abroad.
In "The Sun", a child on a horse waves a Ukrainian flag above a field of sunflowers. Skulls, one marked with the letter "Z" associated with the invading Russian forces, lay at their feet.
"All of us are fighting but in different ways," said Skop, who also goes by the street artist name neivanmade.
"I'm fighting with my images."
For "Temperance", he had drawn an angel distributing food to forlorn characters who appear to be some of the millions the fighting has displaced.
In "Strength", a woman twists a Russian tank's gun out of action -- a jab at the Russian state's "toxic masculinity", he said.
His Tarot cards are selling online as posters and t-shirts in Europe and the United States, and all proceeds will go towards helping Ukrainian children overcome the trauma of conflict.
"They will grow up and become this country," he said.
W.Lapointe--BTB