While Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Washington, Ukrainians gathered in Kyiv Monday to honor a fallen artist turned soldier.

Davyd Chychkan, one of Ukraine’s most prominent contemporary painters, was killed last week while defending positions in Zaporizhzhia. He was 39.

At his funeral in Independence Square, mourners held up his canvases in the open air — transforming the heart of Kyiv into a gallery of remembrance. The gesture underscored the way Chychkan’s life and work fused art with resistance.

Born into a family of painters, Chychkan carved out his own reputation with bold, politically charged works that challenged power and embraced anarchist ideals. His death, confirmed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, adds his name to a growing list of cultural figures killed since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. PEN Ukraine counts more than 200 writers, curators, and artists lost in the war.

Chychkan’s funeral was a reminder that the conflict’s toll is measured not only in territory and casualties, but also in voices silenced, canvases left unfinished, and cultural heritage erased.

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The contrast could not be sharper: as leaders in Washington debate the contours of a possible peace deal — including the question of Ukrainian land — in Kyiv, the price of defending that land was being laid to rest, painted in brushstrokes and sealed in blood.