Viktor is from Kreminnaya in Luhansk Oblast. He is a granite artist, an arthrography master and a tattoo artist. He lived in the Luhansk region all his life, had pro-Ukrainian views, and because of this, first of all, he was forced to evacuate a year ago to the west of Ukraine with his family.
Viktor now lives in a dormitory on the street. Ternopil. Before that, he lived temporarily near Lviv, as well as in shelters. Since November, a man with his wife, daughter and son have been living in a hostel.
After the full-scale invasion of Russia, Kreminna was under threat of occupation. In the middle of March, the husband took his daughter to the evacuation. He sent his wife and son away from home on March 31. And he left on April 4. Viktor says that he was only able to get on the fifth evacuation flight to Slovyansk at the railway station.
“There are many people. Women, children or women with children, or very old people. As long as he missed them, they say: that’s it, there are no more places. I am waiting again, children again, women again. I came here, so far, because the children left, my daughter went all the way to Yaremche. I had such a hope that all this would end quickly. I thought I might stay in Dnipro, although I’m glad to be here, I’ve already visited all of Lviv,” Viktor says.
It was dangerous for him to stay in his hometown because of threats, says the artist.
“Back in the early 1990s, we organized a cell in Luhansk region. I saw Levko Lukyanenko, Mykhailo Horyn. Tried to speak Ukrainian since the first days, when the union collapsed. I knew that what happened in 2014 would not end there, because every 100 years Russia attacks Ukraine. And as famous people said, history is a very strict teacher, it repeats its lessons for those who have learned them badly,” says Viktor Lomakin.
After the evacuation, the family lived in a village near Lviv for several months. Wherever he lived, Victor tried to arrange a small corner to continue to be creative. There, the artist painted the picture “Caddy Racism”. Viktor likes to create on burlap. The idea to create this work appeared when I saw burlap with holes. In this work, parts of the canvas are stitched, and this is also symbolism.
“You will be sick. It’s like a toilet: there are people like a cesspool. Soviet propaganda, Soviet symbols: mausoleum, hammer and sickle, Ostankino tower, monument to Lenin. And “padded racism” is the letter Z, and inside there is the ship “Moscow”, planes, tanks, armored personnel carriers. This is all that makes up the darned… Putin. It was such an idea. On the third floor I made a workshop and I was very angry. I wanted to draw something like that to spite the day,” says the artist.
In Lviv, the artist worked for some time as a cutter of granite slabs, although at home he painted portraits on granite and various paintings. He has more part-time jobs here, but he does not regret it. According to Victor, he also has time to draw with his part-time jobs. At the same time, he is waiting for victory to return home, because there is everything that his parents and he have acquired. His whole life is there.
“I have both tools and compressors, everything is gone. I have a house there, I grew flowers, I love flowers… what can I say when people died… Everything that my father and mother got, I, and it’s because they came to release me from me,” says the artist.
Shortly after settling in a hostel in Lviv, Viktor and his family decided to paint the kitchen in the block. Together with the residents, the man painted two kitchens in the dormitory.