Melbourne artist removes mural depicting Russian and Ukrainian soldiers’ hug

A controversial mural in South Melbourne depicting a Ukrainian soldier and a Russian soldier embracing has now been removed after there was outcry from the city’s Ukrainian community.

Artist Peter Seaton, who works under the name CTO, said he started late Sunday night and worked until 2am Monday to get rid of the artwork, titled Peace Before Pieces, which he had painted near Kings Way, south of the CBD.

Peter Seaton’s mural in South Melbourne depicting a Ukrainian and a Russian soldier embracing has been painted over.Credit: Chris Hopkins

Local Ukrainians said the work created a false equivalence between the objectives of Russia and Ukraine, comparing it to a rapist and a victim hugging while the crime is still occurring. Ukraine’s Ambassador to Australia Vasyl Myroshnychenko called the work “utterly offensive”.

Seaton is continuing to sell video NFTs (non-fungible or “non-exchangeable” tokens) of the mural, with proceeds from the sale to go to the organisation World Beyond War.

Noble Park Association of Ukrainians in Victoria branch president Liana Slipetsky said Melbourne’s Ukrainian community felt that simply removing the mural was not enough.

“It’s not really a win because he was going to paint over it after he’d collected all these donations anyway,” she said.

Artist Peter Seaton has painted over his mural of a Ukrainian and Russian solder embracing.Credit: Eddie Jim

“What I’d like to see now is a recognition from the artist that he’s been educated.

“To go out and consult the Ukrainian community and then go against their wishes screams ignorance to me, and also just a lack of empathy. It sounds like he just wanted some elevation to his own profile.”

Speaking after its removal on Monday, Seaton said he wanted to “sincerely apologise” to the Ukrainian community, but defended the artwork as an attempt to illuminate the human cost of war.

“There is an element of war which is about dehumanising the opposition. My artwork was only about bringing the human element to both of these warring factions,” he said.

“I think if we’re not challenged in our ideals, then we’ll never grow as a species.”

Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations’ Stefan Romaniw said the huge uproar against the artwork made it clear that Australians were still supportive of Ukraine as the invasion continues.

“We all want the war to end, but there’s an aggressor here and you can’t put the aggressor and Ukrainians who are fighting on their home soil in the same categories,” he said.

Members of Melbourne’s Ukrainian community (from left) Danylo Stefyn, Bohdan Cherednyk, Hanna Ilina and Stefan Bugryn near the Peter Seaton mural on Sunday before it was painted over.Credit: Chris Hopkins

“The strongest message out of this is that Australians stand with Ukraine, and they won’t tolerate soft politics.”

Melbourne-based art collective Art 4 Ukraine said in a statement on Sunday it had been in contact with Seaton before the mural was painted, and had warned him the design was insensitive, but the artist proceeded with the concept “regardless of our pleas for reason”.

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