Artists to Russia: 'Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs'

Veronika Yadukha, of Kyiv, Ukraine, a student at Dartmouth College, right, installs an exhibit by Ukrainian artists near a poster called "Bakhmut," by Mykhailo Skop, left, before the opening of an art exhibit called "Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs" at Saint Anselm College, in Manchester, N.H., Monday, May 1, 2023. The art exhibit, marking the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, features new work by Ukrainian illustrators, some of whom have been living without electricity or water. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

As Ukrainian artists Jenya Polosina and Anna Ivanenko watched missiles descend on their country, the two decided to use their creativity to push back against Russia's invasion. Working in the early days of the war from bunkers or sometimes without electricity and water in Kyiv, they and other artists started drawing.

Some of their war posters are now on display in New Hampshire. In the exhibit entitled "Our Fire is Stronger Than Your Bombs," posters from Ivanenko show children studying in a bomb shelter and Ukrainians fleeing the country soon after the war started. Polosina's drawings celebrate a female gymnast and a young mathematician who were killed in missile strikes.

"We understood that it's a good pill, a good medicine for not panicking, for keeping yourself together. So, we started drawing," Ivanenko told The Associated Press from the studio in Kyiv she shares with Polosina. They are among eight artists who contributed 20 posters to the exhibit at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester that opened Monday. The posters were shown previously at Dartmouth College and still can be seen as part of a digital exhibit.