Comment BORODIANKA, Ukraine — Among the ruins of war, in the blossoms of art. A delicate painting of a gymnast doing a handstand has appeared on the wall of a damaged building outside Kyiv and appears to be the work of the British graffiti artist known as Banksy. Banksy posted photos on his Instagram page of the artwork in Borodyanka, northwest of the Ukrainian capital. The city was the target of bombing and fighting in the early stages of the Russian invasion, which turned the apartment blocks into charred, bombed-out doghouses. The mural of the athlete is in black and white and is painted so that she appears to be standing on the crumpled remains of cement blocks jutting out from the blackened wall. Above her tower the broken, broken guts of what were once apartments. Another mural in the city – of a small boy doing a judo throw at a man – also looked like it might be by Banksy, although it was not posted on his Instagram page. President Vladimir Putin of Russia is a judo practitioner. A Banksy-like painting, also in black and white and again not confirmed by Banksy himself, also appeared on the wall of a war-damaged building in the town of Irpin, in the northwestern suburbs of Kyiv. It shows a rhythmic gymnast doing a pirouette with a ribbon over an open hole in the wall. Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine:
