Ukrainian artist makes cultural stand at Venice Biennale

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Artist Pavlo Makov’s role representing Ukraine at the Venice Biennale has become an act of defiance against the Russian invaders, whose attacks on his adopted hometown of Kharkiv have grown more intense in recent days. The Russian-born Ukrainian national says that the Russians are bent on erasing Ukrainian culture. Makov told The Associated Press that the war “is not an ethnic conflict. It is a conflict of cultures. They want to destroy, to demolish, to eliminate Ukrainian culture, so that Ukraine doesn’t exist.”