The Swan Lake ballet has a double meaning for everyone who remembers the times of the USSR. Unscheduled TV broadcasts of the performance were an instrument to turn the attention of the citizens away from political events. This happened for the funerals of Communist Party leaders and for the August coup in 1991, which preceded the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of its republics, including Ukraine.

The tragedy of the Drama Theatre in #Mariupol - leveled by a Russian bomb on March 16 with hundreds of people losing their lives - and the photos of propagandistic ballet performance proudly posted on the Instagram account of the Opera House in occupied Donetsk, just a few days earlier, inspired illustrator Oleksandr Grekhov to create a powerful image of a ballerina dancing on ruins.

Join our campaign on social media: share evidence of Russian war crimes related to cultural heritage destruction in Ukraine and stories of protecting Ukrainian culture. #ARTvsWAR #StandWithUkraine