Ukrainian children paint their destroyed city of Mariupol

 Mariupol school of arts, like many other organizations of the destroyed and occupied city, was relocated to the west-Ukrainian city of Lviv in 2022. After Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, its forces occupied Mariupol by May, bombing the city's residential areas and killing thousands of civilians. 400,000 out of 500,000 Mariupol residents were forced to leave their homes, including children who studied at the school of arts. Their school opened the exhibition "Mariupol. Children" in Lviv organ hall on 25 November 2022. The exhibition shows the best paintings of children from Mariupol painted already during the war. All of them show the destruction as seen by children's eyes or memoirs from their Mariupol located on the sea coast. They were drawing in the Lviv organ hall while listening to organ music during the art therapy sessions. This was one of many ways local initiatives helped children and teenagers who survived Russian occupation and lost their homes. "They draw because they have what to put on paper, something to tell the world with the help of colors and images," said Oksana Pekhotska-Hnatyshyn, a teacher of drawing who too has relocated from Mariupol to Lviv. Several of her works were also present at the exhibition.