Ukraine's Banksy Mural Stamp Shows Vladimir Putin In Judo Match

To commemorate the first anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion, Ukraine has released a postage stamp with a mural by famous graffiti artist Banksy. The stamp showcases a man resembling Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is a black belt in judo, being flipped in a match with a little boy representing Ukraine, as per a report in The Guardian. 

It was painted by the British street artist on a wall that had been destroyed in the town of Borodianka, northwest of Kyiv, where many buildings had been reduced to rubble at the beginning of the assault by Russian warplanes, as per the outlet.

The lower left corner of the new stamp also bears the text "FCK PTN".

As per the outlet, queues were seen in Kyiv on Friday as people raced to purchase the new stamps from the city's major post office, Holovposhtamt. A customer purchasing the stamp expressed her surprise at seeing a "first stamp from one of Banksy's works." "It's a very cool gesture for the world to understand Ukraine, that we remain in the spotlight," she said.

To commemorate the day, Ukraine's central bank also released a commemorative banknote. On one side, three soldiers are shown hoisting the country's national flag.

The depiction of two hands tied together with tape on the reverse of the 20-hryvnia ($0.54) note appears to be a reference to the alleged war crimes that Kyiv has charged Russian forces with committing in Ukraine. However, these claims have been refuted by Moscow. 

The new note, which is claimed to have cutting-edge security features, will have a circulation of 3,00,000. The design and production of the note, according to central bank officials, took roughly eight months. The bank also aims to issue a number of commemorative notes to serve as a visual record of the battle.

They further mentioned that new notes to celebrate the triumph and the reconstruction of Ukraine were already in the works.