Sergei Zakharov

Sergey Zakharov, born in Donetsk, Ukraine. Sergey Zakharov started creating artworks mocking the self-proclaimed “Donetsk People's Republic” in July of 2014, working with fellow artists to scatter plywood figures of separatists sporting clown make-up and camouflage throughout the city streets. Affixed to fences and buildings, the grotesque silhouettes immediately attracted attention and photos of them started popping up in social networks. Inevitably, this drew the ire of the “DNR” militants. Soon after his artworks went viral, Zakharov was visited in his workshop by armed men, who escorted him to the Donetsk Security Services building (one of “DNR”‘s strongholds), along with his computer and art sketches. Zakharov spent over a month and a half in captivity, where he says he was tortured. Things like mock executions and beatings were par for the course, according to the artist.

Sergei Zakharov

https://izolyatsia.org/en/project/izolyatsia/zakharov-the-next-mayor-of-new-mariupol/

https://globalvoices.org/2015/08/31/this-ukrainian-artist-is-drawing-comics-about-his-imprisonment-by-pro-russian-militants-in-donetsk/

https://hyperallergic.com/143061/pro-russian-separatists-kidnap-artist-in-ukraine/