How these Ukrainian artists are using their talents to support the war effort

Enlarge this image Neak, a 43-year-old Ukrainian graffiti artist, mixes green paint at a workshop in Kyiv, Ukraine. His ETC graffiti crew works to camouflage cars to be sent east to the front line of the war with Russia. Natalie Keyssar Natalie Keyssar In an auto garage in an industrial district of Kyiv, Ukraine, the workers are busy. Damaged cars are hauled through the gates at regular intervals with shattered windows and gouged bodies. Cars are pieced together, windows replaced, holes patched. Others come in intact and go straight to the back for a makeover, where four men in respiratory masks sweat as they work in a haze of aerosol paint, covering each vehicle in unique combinations of green, brown, gray and auburn with the practiced, fluid movements of their spray cans. Before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, this was a regular auto body shop, and the painters were one of Kyiv’s well-known graffiti crews, ETC, painting buildings and murals. Now, the graffiti writers work full time to camouflage cars for their military before they send them east. The Ukrainian war effort has been cobbled together through crowdfunding and volunteer initiatives. Along with drones, medical kits and...