You're reading: Donetsk artist wants to turn horrific story of captivity into novel

The first thing to notice about artist Serhiy Zakharov is his calm smile and the next is a black bracelet on his right wrist with the inscription: “Fuck you, Putin.”

Zakharov’s claim to fame is mocking gun-toting Russian-separatist forces in the Donbas with his street art. The Donetsk native’s work has lampooned Russian officers, such as Igor Girkin, and Kremlin-backed leaders.

The separatists didn’t like being ridiculed, so they kidnapped the artist outside his studio on Aug. 6, 2014. The father of three endured torture and faced three mock executions until his captors released him almost two months later.

Zakharov headed for Kyiv and found shelter and work at Izolyatsia, a formerly Donetsk-based platform for cultural initiatives. “We found each other for good. I’m a refugee artist, and Izolatsia is a refugee art center from Donetsk,” Zakharov told the Kyiv Post.

Izolyatsia was founded in 2010 at an old factory in Donetsk. On June 9, 2014, Russian-separatists took it over turned it into a prison.

“The end of September will be the anniversary of my release,” said Zakharov.

He was first held prisoner in the basement of the Donetsk headquarters of the Security Service of Ukraine and then transferred to a military commissariat.

Apart from mocking Girkin, Zakharov poked fun at other separatists, notably Russian mercenaries Arseniy Pavlov, known as Motorola, and the bearded Alexander Mozhaev, whose nom de guerre is Babai.

His artistic collaborator is a photographer who still lives in Donetsk. The photographer took pictures of the artwork and posted them in social media to show that Ukrainians in Donetsk were resisting the Russian invasion.

But the separatists “accused me of sabotage and terrorism against their so-called republic,” Zakharov said.

He wants to turn his experience into a novel with reporter Ekaterina Sergatskova, who will write the text.

“The best therapy a man can get to is to draw everything that happened to him,” the artist said. “It turns out that it’s almost like making a movie, but on paper. It’s rather difficult.”

He will cover his prison life.

“I’m not angry and I don’t want revenge. I just want to tell my story,” Zakharov said. “Some of the people there were sadists, who liked to knock the tar out of me. But there were also kind and generous people, like one of our guards, who secretly removed our handcuffs and gave us hot tea every time he was on duty.”

Two separatists beat a prisoner in a sketch from the future graphic novel about captivity made by Serhiy Zakharov.

At first, the artist wanted to recreate the images of his captivity in traditional comic-book style of simple lines and colors. But then he decided that the book should be more in the style of the Codex Seraphinianus, an illustrated encyclopedia of an imaginary world that was created by the Italian artist Luigi Serafini in 1981. “I decided to use the shading technique. This made the sketches more emotional, as if I had drawn them while I was still there,” Zakharov said.

The artist is getting used to life in Kyiv. He likes the city but finds it dirty and the abandoned historical buildings annoy him.

“Donetsk is way cleaner than Kyiv. Even these days they continue to clean the city center of the almost empty Donbas capital,” Zakharov said.

The artist still hopes to return to his cozy house in Donetsk.

“If I lost hope I would feel ill,” the painter said.

Kyiv Post writer Veronika Melkozerova can be reached at [email protected]