The Russia-Ukraine war
Through the eyes of a teenager
Polina Budagovska, 19, studies architecture at the Kyiv National University of Construction and Architecture. Originally from the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, she started drawing as a child and would take art classes after school.
In 2014, when war broke out between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian forces, Polina and her family were forced to flee Donetsk. They eventually relocated to the capital Kyiv where Polina continued to draw, mostly portraits and nature. When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Polina’s family was displaced for the second time and she decided to capture her feelings and experiences through drawings made on an iPad. Polina plans to use her visual art skills in the future as an architect and she hopes to build new homes for Ukrainians when the war is over.
In these drawings, Polina shares her story of being displaced twice by war in Ukraine.