British artist Banksy “confesses” to have designed seven murals in Ukraine

British street artist Banksy has confirmed that he created seven murals in different places in Ukraine, namely in Kyiv, Irpin and Borodianka (both in Kyiv Oblast), The Art newspaper wrote. Suggestions that the anonymous artist was present in war-torn Ukraine appeared after last week, when three works that bore similarity to Banksy's works were noticed in Borodianka. One of the wall paintings depicts a man who looks like Russian President Vladimir Putin, and another guy throws him onto the floor during a judo match; it is widely known that Putin has a black belt in this sport.

Another work shows two children using a Czech hedgehog [a metal trap that prevents armored vehicles from penetrating defence lines - ed.] as a swing; and a third mural, painted on the ruins of a bombed-out building, shows a gymnast performing a handstand.

Now Banksy has confirmed the authorship of these, as well as four other works.

Among them is a woman in a bathrobe and with curlers who wears a gas mask and carries a fire extinguisher; a bearded man having a bath; and there's another piece, in which Banksy appears to have included existing graffiti depicting a penis, making it look like a nuclear warhead mounted on the back of an armoured truck. The new works are Banksy's first public murals in more than a year, although this is not the first time that his drawings are connected with Ukraine.

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In March, a reproduction of one of his most famous anti-war works, CND Soldiers, was sold at auction, raising US£106.500 for the Okhmadyt, a children's hospital in Kyiv.

The artist's first original mural appeared outside the parliament building in London during protests against the Iraq War in 2003.

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