Ukrainian artist Andriy Yermolenko’s series of posters dedicated to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, hosted by Russia this summer in June-July, probably won’t please the Kremlin.
The blood-red and black-themed posters take aim at Russia’s alleged crimes and human rights violations around the world, including the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 in Ukraine, the poisoning of former spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter Yulia with a Novichok nerve agent in the UK, and the bombing of civilians in Aleppo, Syria.
The posters also take a swipe at Russia’s dismal human rights record at home, including its holding of dozens of Ukrainian political prisoners. According to Yermolenko, the posters are meant to show the brutal and bloody nature of the current regime in Russia.
The harsh nature of the images earned Yermolenko a ban on June 6 from Facebook, where the posters had started to go viral. The social medium said the artist had violated its terms of use.
“Facebook said I violated its rules by posting these posters,” Yermolenko told Ukrainian media Ukrainska Pravda.
However, Yermolenko’s account was reinstated within a day, and he was soon back posting new material. His latest poster features an hourglass made with human bones, and soccer balls that have turned into skulls.
Presenting the series of posters to its viewers, Ukraine’s Telebachennya Toronto TV show appealed to foreign fans not to go to Russia for the World Cup, saying that by visiting they are effectively sponsoring war crimes and terror.
After the ban of the artist, other Facebook users started spreading the posters themselves and even uploaded them to file-sharing site Fex.net so that everybody could access them. The posters have since started to spread widely on Facebook again, and on other social media.
