The Independent

Ukrainian sculptor becomes part of prestigious UK art society after fleeing war

A sculptor who fled Ukraine with just his family, pets and a suitcase after his studio was destroyed in the Russian invasion, has been accepted into the Royal Society of British Artists.

Alex Lidagovsky, his wife, Dasha Nepochatova, and stepdaughter, Sofia Krotova, who is 16, were forced to leave Kyiv when Russia’s invasion began on February 24 2022.

Now settled in the UK, Lidagovsky, 63, who was an in-demand sculptor in Ukraine, welcomed the PA news agency into his studio at Fusion Arts Studios, in Kingston upon Thames, in south-west London.

Reflecting on the beginning by his wife, said: “My studio was destroyed at the beginning of the war and was near Kyiv and I knew about it later from my friends when they sent me photos of destroyed and bombed studio.

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Independent

The Independent4 min readCrime & Violence
As US Spotlights Those Missing Or Dead In Native Communities, Prosecutors Work To Solve Their Cases
It was a frigid winter morning when authorities found a Native American man dead on a remote gravel road in western New Mexico. He was lying on his side, with only one sock on, his clothes gone and his shoes tossed in the snow. There were trails of
The Independent4 min readWorld
A Holocaust Survivor Will Mark That History Differently After The Horrors Of Oct. 7
When Hamas fighters invaded southern Israel on Oct. 7, the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip perpetrated the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. So this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which begins Sunday evening in Israel, carries
The Independent6 min read
Ben Schwartz On Sonic The Hedgehog 3: ‘I Haven’t Seen A Shred Of Darkness In Jim Carrey’
“I’m not allowed to say anything,” insists Ben Schwartz. To emphasise his point, or perhaps swept along by sheer verbal inertia, the comedian and Parks and Recreation star says it three more times. “I was told not to say anything. I don’t know anythi

Related