Ukrainian artist adorns Kyiv high-rises with images of fallen soldiers

By Margaryta Chornokondratenko and Anna Voitenko

KYIV (Reuters) - Liudmyla Bordus lost her son Maksym to the war with Russia, but he is never far away - his likeness emblazoned in vivid colour across her apartment building in Kyiv.

"I can feel him every day, every time I pass him here," she said, stroking the spray-painted image. 

"I greet him in the morning and in the evening, always." 

The sweeping mural of the 23-year-old former boxer is one of a dozen around the Ukrainian capital created by artist Eugene Gladenko to commemorate troops killed fighting Russian forces.

Moscow's February 2022 invasion galvanised Ukrainians, who have memorialised their fallen in myriad ways. Billboards tower over highways and plaques adorn village schools where soldiers studied.

Gladenko, 31, said he is motivated by love of country and a calling to "create comfort" for Ukrainians who have lost loved ones. Many of his creations are deeply personal, he added, ordered by relatives or friends. 

"Every story ... is a story of a hero, an example for their entire district or neighbourhood," said Gladenko, whose own friend was killed in the war.

Bordus acknowledged that the image of Maksym, who was killed in southeastern Ukraine last June when a tank shell struck his trench, is painful. 

But she added that it was a potent reminder of the sacrifice made by Ukrainian troops like her son.

"It feels as if an angel is looking at you from above."

(Reporting by Margaryta Chornokondratenko and Anna Voitenko; Additional reporting by Thomas Peter; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Christopher Cushing)