Russia's war is erasing Kostiantynivka's Soviet-era mosaics — this is why it matters
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The mosaics covering the facades of factories, cultural centers, and apartment blocks across eastern Ukraine were designed with a specific kind of permanence in mind. They survived the Soviet collapse, the chaos of the 1990s, and decades of post-industrial neglect. What these mosaics couldn't survive was Russian artillery.
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Russia's war is erasing Kostiantynivka's Soviet-era mosaics — this is why it matters by Kate Tsurkan, Oleg Petrasiuk March 1, 2026 9:01 PM 6 min read Mosaics in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, on Dec. 4, 2025. (Oleg Petrasiuk / 24th Separate Mechanised Brigade named after King Danylo) Photos by Kate Tsurkan, Oleg Petrasiuk The mosaics covering the facades of factories, cultural centers, and apartment blocks across eastern Ukraine were designed with a specific kind of permanence in mind. They survived the Soviet collapse, the chaos of the 1990s, and decades of post-industrial neglect. What these mosaics couldn't survive was Russian artillery. As Russia’s full-scale war enters its fifth year , the fighting is erasing art that was meant to be indestructible. Photographer Oleg Petrasiuk has captured not just images of endangered artwork, but evidence of a cultural landscape in the process of disappearing in Ukraine’s eastern city of Kostiantynivka in Donetsk Oblast. These photographs document what happens when artillery and bombs don't distinguish between military infrastructure and the accumulated memory of place — when a shell that destroys a building also destroys the mosaic that defined it, the artwork that gave it identity, the visual landmark that made it home. This is documentation as a salvage operation, an attempt to preserve in pixels what can no longer be preserved in tesserae , to create a digital archive of monuments that may soon exist nowhere else. Yet, this work poses significant questions about what we choose to remember and how. Become a member – go ad‑free During the decades of socialist construction, Moscow dispatched artists across Ukraine and the broader Soviet-controlled space with a specific mandate — to cover the facades of factories, metro stations, community centers, and apartment blocks with mosaics. The work paid well, sometimes exceptionally so by Soviet standards, which ensured a steady supply of talent ready to execute the state'...
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