Independence Square, Kyiv

I followed the Ukraine invasion with some horror in the early months of 2022. I found myself scrolling through endless articles and analyses. Eventually I decided I needed to put that time to better use and began planning this drawing. I hoped I could contribute in some small way to the aid effort.

I centered the drawing on Independence Square in the center of Kyiv. It’s a symbolic site with many important monuments. I drew the square as I hoped it would be in the future; the center of a victory celebration.

As Independence Square is a landmark part of a capital city there were plenty of drone photographs of the area. I was also initially aided by streetview (mostly in the lower half of the sphere) but Google switched it off during the drawing process so as not to aid Russia.

In the process of making this I learned a lot about Kyiv and sincerely hope to visit it one day!

Here are some of the details I added and the drawing next to a 100nt note for scale:

1. The sunflower is a symbol of Ukraine. I also wrote a little “duli” in traditional Chinese, which means independence.

2. This building is adorned with the Trident, another Ukrainian symbol. Also the clock on top has changed to show the date of Ukraine's Independence Day.

3. Early in the war Russia destroyed the AN-225 Mriya, the largest plane in the world. Mriya incidentally means dream in Ukrainian. Here it is rebuilt and flying in the distance (from the city, I felt a giant plane flying towards the city looked a little ominous)

4. This arch is a monument to one of the old city gates, topped with the Archangel Micheal who is a symbol of Kyiv city. A couple of jets perform a flypast in the distance.

基輔的獨立廣場小細節. 我也放下了一張100nt所以你們可以看我的畫是多大!

1 向日葵是烏克蘭的符號. 我也寫小小的『獨立』

2 烏克蘭獨立紀念日是8/24. 平常這是一個鐘.

3 這是Antonov AN-225 “mriya” 世界的最大的飛機. 他被俄國破壞了.

4 基輔的老城市門. 上面有基輔的符號 也有烏克蘭空軍