Oksana Drachkovska
An illustrator originally from Lviv, Oksana Drachkovska is currently living in Barcelona. Having graduated from the National Academy of Arts in Lviv, majoring in fine arts, she decided to focus on illustration. In 2016, she was granted scholarships from Gaude Polonia (Poland) and SAIA (Slovakia). Oksana has been cooperating with many publishing houses and magazines and creating commercial illustrations for companies around the world. In 2020, the book she illustrated, A Bunny Who Didn’t Jump and His Brave Mother, won Lviv Book Forum’s award as the best book for children aged 6 to 8. In 2021 and 2022, she was shortlisted for Bologna Book Fair’s International Award for Illustration. Oksana draws inspiration from nature, landscapes, and traveling. She enjoys experimenting with different techniques to create books, stories, and her own fantasy worlds.
“Irpin”
A woman from the town of Irpin, portrayed on this poster, is just one of many who grabbed a go-bag and left her home to bring her child to safety.
“I can’t understand how it’s possible to shoot innocent people who want to escape.”
In the early days of the Russian-Ukrainian war, when Russians occupied villages and towns outside Kyiv, thousands of people were desperate to flee toward safer regions of Ukraine or abroad. A woman from the town of Irpin, Maryna Met, portrayed on this poster, is just one of many who grabbed a go-bag and left her home to bring her son, Ivan, to safety. Like dozens of other people, they never made it to a safe place as Russians randomly fired at civilians—including elderly people, pregnant women, and children—who were trying to evacuate on foot or in their cars. Maryna and her son were killed on March 5: a Russian tank fired straight at them the moment they walked outside. Their neighbors buried them in their own yard.
“Kharkiv”
Yulia Zdanovska (21), a gifted mathematician and education volunteer, died in a fire caused by a Russian missile launched on Kharkiv in March 2022.
“Yulia Zdanovska was killed under fire in Kharkiv while volunteering. Winner of the European Mathematical Olympiad among girls. She was only 21 years old.”
A graduate of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, a silver medalist at the 2017 European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, and an instructor for Teach for Ukraine, Yulia died in a fire caused by a Russian missile launched on Kharkiv, her hometown less than 25 miles away from the border with Russia, on March 3, 2022. According to a report by the International Mathematical Union Committee for Women in Mathematics, she remained in Ukraine when the war broke out and was working as a volunteer in a residential area of Kharkiv when the missile hit. In honor of Yulia Zdanovska, the MIT Department of Mathematics has launched “Yulia’s Dream,” a free math enrichment and research program for Ukrainian high school students and refugees in grades 9 to 11.
“Mariupol”
Kateryna Dyachenko (11), a talented rhythmic gymnast, was killed in a missile strike on her home in Mariupol in late March 2022.
“Yesterday, Kateryna Dyachenko (11), a Ukrainian gymnast and would-be pride of Ukraine, fell victim to the Russian invasion. What right do they have to take away children's dreams and the future of our country? I will draw a lot because that's the only way I can shout to the whole world to end this horror!”
Kateryna Dyachenko, a talented rhythmic gymnast, was killed in a missile strike on her home in Mariupol in late March 2022. Her coach Anastasia Meshchanenkova said: “She was supposed to conquer the world but died buried in the rubble.”
A coastal resort on the sea of Azov, Mariupol was under a three-month siege by the Russian forces that wiped the city off the face of the earth, turning it into Europe’s Aleppo. Ukrainian officials reported that approximately 25,000 civilians had been killed and that at least 95% of the city had been destroyed in large-scale Russian bombardments.