(Kyiv) Ukraine Post on Friday issued a stamp reproducing a work by British graffiti artist Banksy, in which a young judoka knocks down a grown man, an allegory of Ukraine defeating Russia, painted on a ruined building near Kyiv .
The artist’s work evokes the Ukrainian army which knocks down Russian President Vladimir Putin, known to be a black belt in judo.
The phrase “Fuck off Putin” has been added to the lower left part of the new stamp, which reproduces the stencil.
PHOTO SERGEI SUPINSKY, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
This one had been painted by Banksy on a destroyed wall in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, many buildings of which were reduced to ruins by Russian aircraft at the start of the invasion of Ukraine, a year ago to the day.
A number of the artist’s drawings also appeared in Kyiv at the end of 2022.
Several dozen residents of the capital went to buy these new stamps on Friday, in the big post office on the famous Maidan square, in the city center, noted an AFP journalist.
Present in the queue that formed in the hall, Svetlana, a 50-year-old economist, made the trip “because I support the armed forces” of Ukraine and that “the stamp is printed at a historic moment” , one year after the start, on February 24, 2022, of the Russian invasion.
Maxime, meanwhile, is delighted to see a “first stamp from one of Banksy’s works”. “It’s a very cool gesture for the world to understand Ukraine, for us to always stay in the world’s sight,” the 26-year-old told AFP.