The Art of Defiance: Ruslan’s War

In the trenches, war steals everything, homes, futures, lives. Yet Ruslan fights with ink, not bullets. His art shames tyrants. His laughter defies death. Will we listen?

I first met Ruslan Pikhota last year, in the late summer of 2024, deep in the heart of Ukraine’s embattled Kharkiv region. The war had settled into its brutal rhythm — missiles raining down like an unrelenting storm, trenches carved into the once-fertile fields, soldiers navigating the razor-thin line between duty and survival. Amidst it all, I was following the story of the men and women fighting to defend their homeland, embedding myself in their world to document the raw, unfiltered human experience of war.

Ruslan was introduced to me through a mutual contact, an interpreter who had become my bridge into the lives of those on the frontlines. He was a press officer at the time, but his reputation as an artist had already begun to precede him. Before I ever saw his face, I saw his work—sketches passed around in digital form, pinned to barracks walls, appearing on fundraising platforms. His art had become a language of its own, speaking to soldiers and civilians alike, distilling the h…