Swastika painted on Worthing monument dedicated to victims of Ukraine invasion in second incident of vandalism

An eye-catching commemorative sculpture – of a Ukrainian soldier holding a baby while leading a mother and another child to safety – was installed in Worthing town centre on Wednesday, May 3.

It was the work of Dan Barton, founder of UK voluntary community project Standing with Giants, in collaboration with fellow artist, Pete Naylor, to show ‘unwavering solidarity’ to people suffering in Ukraine. Standing with Giants was established in Oxfordshire in 2019 to ‘honour those who fight for freedom, past and present’.

Yaroslava Matvieienko, who worked as a journalist in Ukraine before fleeing to Worthing, discovered the monument had been vandalised last week.

It had been graffitied with words referring to the May 2014 Odesa clashes in Ukraine, in which more than 30 people died.

Yaroslava said: “I live nearby. Everything was alright so it was a shock that a few hours later this happened.

“One of our community girls bought some paint and painted away the sign. We did what we had to, we didn’t wait for anyone. It seems now everything is calm.”

However, over the weekend, a swastika was painted over the monument in another shocking incident of vandalism. The incident was reported to the police, Yaroslava said.

The 12ft tall silhouette, named ‘I want to live’, remained in Worthing until Monday, May 15, before it was moved to Brighton. It was previous installed in Oxford City Centre, Salisbury, Bournemouth, Southampton and Portsmouth. The project hopes to eventually move the monument to Dover and outside Downing Street in London as well as he EU building in Brussels, Belgium.

“We need to constantly remind people that the war is not over,” Yaroslava said. “People think it’s over but it’s not.

"It’s amazing. This project shows there’s still a lot of support for Ukrainians. We are grateful.

"Ukraine is still in people's minds. The painter said he wants to keep the painting in the minds of as many people as possible. We are very grateful for that, It’s very touching. The location is absolutely perfect, right in the centre.”

Standing with Giants also produces monuments to remember the military personal and civilians who died in historical wars, including the Falklands War.

Artist Dan Barton said: “We do large-scale installation to honour those who fight for freedom, past and present. We’ve been doing all sorts of installation over the years for soldiers, the NHS and different groups of people that fight for freedom.

"I particularly wanted to do something for the Ukrainian people to stand in solidarity with them and send a message to aggressors. We have created this image to keep awareness and to help people keep funding Ukrainians in need.

"I saw this particular image on the news, I photographed it, drew it out. It was the fact of a Ukrainian solider helping children and the mother to escape from their situation. It was a very meaningful image and sums up the tens of millions people affected by this pointless war.”

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