Oleksandr Bondarenko

Oleksandr Bondarenko is a Mariupol painter, who works in the field of geometric abstraction. Member of the National Union of Artists of Ukraine (since 1988), one of the members of the Mariupol creative association “Harbarbond”, participant of Ukrainian and international exhibitions.

According to the artist, the war started so unexpectedly for him that he did not even have time to orient himself and understand what would be waiting for him. At first it was difficult purely psychologically: he read all the news for a day and could not believe it, everything seemed unreal. After March 2nd, the city was cut off the power, mobile communication and heating disappeared. There were frosts. In a few days the water supply stopped, and then the gas did. People were rescued by a nearby spring and a fire in the yard. 2 weeks have passed this way.

Oleksandr Bondarenko says: “Once we noticed that cars were marching in columns towards the exit from the city and did not return. Since we don’t have a vehicle, my pregnant daughter and I went on the road and hitchhiked. We were very lucky, and Andriy picked us up from the village of Yalta, he took us to Berdyansk by his minibus. There we found out that there are Red Cross buses to Zaporizhia and we managed to get on one of them.

Then there was a difficult road to Zaporizhia in a column of more than 15 buses and cars, the journey took almost 12 hours. On our way, Russian troops fired at the cars of peaceful refugees, we miraculously did not come under fire. The next day we moved from Zaporizhia to Dnipro and were already relatively safe. There I was able to connect with the friends and colleagues who left the completely destroyed city. There is still no connection with those who did not leave Mariupol.

My studio apartment is on the 9th, top floor, of course, I could not work, although just a few days before the war, everything was ready (subframes, canvases, paints, sketches) for the implementation of my new project. When we stayed in Zaporizhia, friends sent me a photo of my apartment.The same day I left Mariupol, a missile flew into the roof of my studio apartment, pierced the roof, but did not explode and is still in my kitchen, otherwise there would be a fire and all my works for 50 years of creative activity would burn.

I would like to show some photos of my studio-apartment that was damaged by the shelling, as well as sketches of my new art project, which I still do not give up hope to implement here in Dnipro.

These are photos and video of the artist`s studio-apartment, damaged by a missile, as well as sketches of his new art project.

Interviewed by Maryna Streltsova