Solutions to win: Kyiv charity exhibition raises funds for sappers' ammunition

Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne

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The Kyiv Museum of Pavlo Tychyna has recently launched a charitable exhibition entitled "Free Ukraine: Ukrainian Sappers – Artists of Risk" to raise funds for equipment for pyrotechnic specialists. The displayed pieces are crafted from reclaimed Russian ammunition found in Irpin and transformed into stunning works of art.

Suspilne reported this.

What is the problem?

Yakiv Hanul, the head of the pyrotechnic service and the head of the Humanitarian Demining Foundation NGO, told Suspilne that most of the Irpin sappers took part in the city's defense.

When, after the de-occupation, the problem of demining urban areas arose, the fighters began to join it, initially together with the State Emergency Service and other units of sappers.

"That's how a service was formed from ex-servicemen, who started demining Irpin," the man said.

Then, the group members underwent additional training at the Demining Center of the State Emergency Service, received certificates, and began to receive calls from citizens who had discovered explosives officially. The sappers must ensure their safety by having the appropriate equipment to carry out demining.

To date, more than 700 calls have been processed.

"The most common discoveries on the territory of Pryirpinnia were grenades left behind by the Russians. These were often referred to as "stretch marks." There was even a case where a children's piano and chair in a dance studio had to be demined," recalls Yakiv. Still, the biggest problem for the civilian population is unexploded ordnance.

According to the pyrotechnic service head, equipment plays a vital role in sappers' work. According to him, collecting 600 thousand hryvnias for eight protective kits is necessary.

What is the solution?

The art project aims to raise funds for the production of protective suits for sapper units engaged in demining Ukrainian territories.

The artists agreed to help raise funds. They offered to paint the remains of ammunition to use them for a charitable purpose.

How does it work?

Valeriia Velyka, the head of the NGO "The World Through the Eyes of Artists," says she met the sappers at an artistic plein air in Irpin. They took the meeting participants to the forest, where Russian soldiers once stood.

^{Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

"Bayraktar" flew to them (Russians – ed.), and there were many fragments of shell casings and shells," recalls Ms. Valeriya.

Then, according to the artist, the idea arose to make art products from these fragments to use them at the auction and help the sappers. Eleven artists from Irpin, Kyiv, Lutsk, and Chernihiv agreed to paint the shells.

^{Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

As the publication reports, the exhibition presented works of art made on Russian projectile casings or elements of military equipment found during hostilities in the hero city of Irpin.

^{"Ukrainian sappers —Artists of risk": a charity exhibition was opened in Kyiv to collect funds for sappers' ammunition on December 16, 2023. Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

In total, the works of more than 30 artists take part in the exhibition "Free Ukraine. Ukrainian Sappers —Artists of Risk".

^{Candlesticks made from projectile remnants, Kyiv, December 16, 2023. Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

^{Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

The event was attended by project partners – representatives of the UKRTAC company, which manufactures uniforms for Irpin sappers.

^{The protective equipment of a sapper was presented at an exhibition at the Tychyna Museum, Kyiv, on December 16, 2023. Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

Nicolas Macharashvili, divelopment director of the UKRTAC company, said that they produce ammunition for professional military personnel. And in the last year, emphasis was placed on providing sappers with mine clearance suits.

The product underwent several revisions and improvements. The version presented at this exhibition has the 2nd class of protection. Like all the company's products, the sapper's suit has undergone ballistic examination and certification.

^{Helmet and protective vest for a sapper from the company "UKRTAC," Kyiv, December 16, 2023. Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

During the tests of the protective clothes, an explosion or a shot is simulated, which should protect the employee of the State Emergency Service, explained the company's director of development.

The sapper's suit consists of a helmet with a protective mask for the face, an apron, and trousers, completed with ballistic bags.

^{Minesweeper ammunition, Kyiv, December 16, 2023. Photo: Dariia Hryhorenko/Suspilne}

"We understand that a sapper's clothes should be light, convenient, comfortable, and most importantly, reliable because often the State Emergency Service employees wear such suits for several hours at a time."

For reference:

As Rubryka noted, the disposal of military scrap metal requires a particular procedure. All the more so, in those places where metal debris has accumulated the most, hostilities will continue for a long time.

However, Ukrainians have already begun to process what the occupiers bring and launch on our land. Read about how shell casings, rocket fragments, and ammunition boxes are turned into art in our material: "Daggers, furniture and church bells: how the waste of war becomes art."

In Zaporizhzhia, engineers and students of the "School of Robotics" created a robot sapper for the needs of the Armed Forces and emergency workers.

In addition, by the end of 2025, according to the EU project, there will be three more stages of transfer of sapper dogs to Ukraine. Eight dogs were transferred during the second stage, which ended in Poland; the ninth still needs to pass certification and will be transferred later.