Under bombing in eastern Ukraine and disabled by illness, an unknown painter awaits his fate

In the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, a disabled painter lies bed-ridden in an apartment, its window his only view into the changing world he can no longer comprehend

SLOVIANSK, Ukraine -- Mykola Soloviov, 88, is a painter the world does not know. His landscapes of eastern Ukraine, records of a lost time, lie tucked away in a modest home under threat of Russian attack.

Soloviov can’t hear or walk and barely speaks. Disabled since a 2017 stroke, he spends his days bed-ridden in an apartment in Sloviansk, a city 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the front line in the region of Donetsk.

Waves of Russian missile attacks have continued to pound civilian areas across Ukraine as the war approaches its second anniversary next month, killing scores of Ukrainian civilians, often in their own homes. Eastern Ukraine, where troops live among the civilian population, is often hit the hardest.

But his wife, Liudymla, doesn't want Mykola and his paintings to die in anonymity. She wants the world to know he’s not just another civilian caught in the middle of a war.

From the sofa where he lies motionless for much of the day, Mykola's lively eyes are fixed on the window, his only view into the changing world he can no longer comprehend.