蜜芽传媒

When US president Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, meet later today in Alaska, millions will be hoping they can find a way to end the war in Ukraine.

It鈥檚 estimated that around a million Russian troops have been killed or wounded since Russia first invaded Ukraine three years ago, while the Ukrainian army has apparently lost around 100,000 troops. Then there are the thousands of Ukrainian civilians killed and wounded, among them children. Children for whom life has become a narrative of bombs and loss.

When Putin and Trump meet, I wish that they might be surrounded by paintings of children in Ukraine by the war artist Arabella Dorman that I saw at an exhibition in London a year ago. One of them, Child鈥檚 Play, showed Ukrainian boys playing with toys. A closer look revealed that the toys were shards from bombed-out vehicles. Others showed broken teddy bears and traditional Ukrainian dolls lying in the dust and dirt. The paintings conveyed both the immediate impact of war 鈥� losing parents, homes and schools 鈥� but also its lasting psychological impact on a whole generation of children.

One of the most striking paintings of all was one inspired by the many bomb-damaged icons of Mary with her son, Jesus, that Dorman has seen as a war artist.

As well as all its other traumas, war in Ukraine has led to growing religious divisions between those who follow the Russian Orthodox Church 鈥� a supporter of the invasion 鈥� and others who belong to the breakaway Ukrainian Orthodox or the Roman Catholic Church. But they share a devotion to Mary. President Zelensky, himself Jewish, highlighted that traditional devotion when he handed Pope Leo a gift at his installation in May - an icon of the Madonna and child, painted on an artillery crate from the front line.

Catholics often say they are drawn to Mary because they feel she understands human suffering 鈥� an empathy so beautifully expressed by Michelangelo鈥檚 Pieta sculpture, of Mary cradling Christ鈥檚 corpse after he was taken down from the cross.

Today is one of Mary鈥檚 great feast days 鈥� that of the Assumption, when Catholics believe she was taken up into heaven after she died 鈥� a sign that the great suffering of this life was over.

The icons of Ukraine and Russia depict Mary and her son gazing out at humanity. The one that I saw in that exhibition depicted her looking out, challenging people as if to say: 鈥淵ou have not done enough for my son鈥�. The mothers of Ukraine 鈥� and Russia 鈥� may well be joining her today, asking of Putin and Trump: will you do enough for our children?

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