A memorial to Ukrainian artist and soldier David Chichkan, who was killed in August 2025 in a battle on the Zaporizhzhia front, has been installed at Baikovo Cemetery in Kyiv. According to the publication Wave (RBC.UA), the artist's wife, Anna Chichkan, announced the unveiling of the monument on Facebook. The memorial was completed on the eve of the Day of Remembrance of Ukraine's Defenders, which lends the ceremony a particular symbolic resonance: the burial site has been turned into a space that, in the words of his family, carries "a lot of warmth and love and very little cemetery aesthetics."
A Ceremony in a Small Circle
The unveiling took place in a compact format and without a broad public program. As Wave notes, the reason was the situation in the capital: due to massive aerial attacks on Kyiv, the ceremony was held in a small circle of close family and friends. This circumstance, in effect, defined the character of the entire memorial complex — it was conceived not as a monumental state object, but as an intimate, personal space of remembrance, brought together through the efforts of the family, friends, and colleagues.
The Team Behind the Memorial
The central element of the composition is a sculptural portrait of David Chichkan, created by Dmytro Voytovych. The stone part of the memorial was designed by the artists Zhanna Kadyrova and Sasha Burlaka. A quote from one of the artist's own well-known works was placed on the monument; the inscription was executed by Taras Kovach using a typeface designed by Vitalina Lopukhina. A separate accent was a composition of plants and bark that Anna Chichkan created together with her friends. A special vase was also made for the burial site — its author was Serhiy Horban. According to the source, delivery of the piece was delayed due to the aerial attacks, but the vase was subsequently installed near the monument.
Funding and the Transfer of a Copy to the Museum
Anna Chichkan thanked everyone who took part in raising funds for the arrangement of the burial site. In her words, the contributions made it possible to pay for the production and installation of the memorial, as well as to partially finance future projects dedicated to the artist's memory. In addition, a plaster copy of the sculptural portrait of David Chichkan was transferred to the collection of the National Art Museum of Ukraine — thus giving the memorial an institutional, museum continuation.
Contradictory Accounts
There is a discrepancy in how the circumstances of Chichkan's death are described by different parties. Ukrainian publications (Wave, UNIAN, Focus) characterize him as a soldier who, on 9 August 2025, took part in repelling an assault by Russian infantry on the Zaporizhzhia front and sustained fatal wounds, with his death becoming known on 10 August. A Russian publication (news.mail.ru) uses different wording — "eliminated in the zone of the special military operation" — and does not mention the installation of the memorial at all. Thus, the factual basis regarding the date and place of death coincides, and the discrepancy concerns exclusively the rhetorical framing and whether the event is recognized as an act of remembrance. The details of the memorial (the composition of the authors, the funding, the transfer of the copy to the museum) are confirmed by a single primary source — a Wave report citing the artist's wife's Facebook post.
