Tymofiy Seidov’s drawings today are “full of vivid characters and vibrant landscapes”, according to his proud mother, Rita. They are, she says with evident relief, a world away from the art the nine-year-old was producing a year ago. Then, Tymofiy was the only child left in Kutuzivka, a Ukrainian village on the eastern outskirts of Kharkiv, a major city close to the Russian border and an early target of Vladimir Putin’s invading forces.
Once war broke out, home for Tymofiy and 23 others, including his mother, aunt and grandparents, was a dark, cramped bunker under a bomb-damaged kindergarten, in the centre of a village once populated by 1,500 residents, reduced to 50 within months. All the other children had been evacuated but Tymofiy’s family had nowhere to go and no money to go there. For 87 days, Tymofiy, terrified by the barrage of violence above him, drew his pictures under a tiny LED light, in the corner of the otherwise almost completely dark basement. Tanks featured a lot in his art, as did Dalek-like monsters.
