Anonymous street artist Banksy has struck again. This time, it was in the war-torn region of Borodyanka, Ukraine, about 30 miles north of the capital Kyiv. On his Instagram on Friday, November 11, Banksy shared three photos of a female gymnast doing a handstand on a pile of rubble at the bottom of a building that had been hit hard by Russians in the war. The caption read only Borodyanka, Ukraine.
Like a rose growing from the concrete, Banksy’s gymnast feels a bit like satire with a dash of poignancy. The young girl is trying her best to do what she loves to do surrounded by a bombed-out apartment building. Borodyanka is a city that was taken over by Russia at the beginning of the war but was retaken by Ukrainian forces in April.
Three other murals similar to Banksy’s style have been spotted around Ukraine, but have not been claimed by the mysterious artist. One is a kid doing a Judo-toss on a man that looks like it could be Vladimir Putin. Another is a female rhythmic gymnast with a neck brace on top of a hole in a building. The final scene is two kids using an anti-tank trap as a see-saw.