Several people have been arrested after trying to steal a work by street artist Banksy in Hostomel, a town near kyiv, reports Sky News.
The suspects were arrested after cutting the work representing a person in a bathrobe, wearing a gas mask, a fire extinguisher in hand.
The portion of the wall on which the work had been painted was completely torn off, as shown in a photo published by the local police.
The drawing, however, was recovered and would be intact, said Oleksiy Kuleba, the governor of the region, in a press release quoted by the British media.
The work of street artist Banksy was cut by several people in the town of Hostomel, near kyiv.
Andrii Nebytov via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS
"Symbols of our struggle against the enemy"
“These images are, after all, symbols of our struggle against the enemy… We will do everything to preserve these street art pieces as a symbol of our victory,” he said.
Last month, street artist Banksy, whose identity has never been revealed, claimed authorship of a work depicting a gymnast on a partially ruined building in the Ukrainian town of Borodyanka.
He also made six others in several areas hit by Russian fighting, as he indicated in an Instagram post.
"We don't have enough tears left," he commented.
In this short video shared on his account, the artist reveals his journey and his works through a Ukraine at war.
The images are presented as having been shot in the month of November 2022.
The facade of a building in ruins appears to be adorned with graffiti representing a bearded man, lying in a bathtub, visibly rubbing his back with a long brush.
Other stencils still represent children strewn on an anti-tank obstacle installed in kyiv, transformed for the occasion into a playground, or a schoolboy causing a judoka to fall heavily.