Mural in Hostomel, Kyiv Region

Painted on a weathered yellow wall in Hostomel, a town near Kyiv, this stencil work shows a figure in a bathrobe and gas mask standing on a wooden chair. In one hand the person grips a fire extinguisher, a small flash of red against the muted scene. The image appeared in late 2022, after Banksy traveled to Ukraine and left a series of murals in places hit hard during the early months of the war. Like much of his work, it pairs something ordinary, a dressing gown and a kitchen chair, with something tense and strange.

Banksy is famous for staying anonymous while leaving his mark on public walls around the world. His pieces usually carry a quiet message, often about war, power, or everyday survival, and this one fits that pattern. The figure feels both vulnerable and ready, dressed for bed yet armed and masked, as if caught between calm and crisis. Placing the art directly on a damaged building in a real war zone gave it added weight, turning a broken wall into a kind of witness. There is no grand spectacle here, just a simple, haunting picture of someone holding their ground.