A controversial North Center mural of a Ukrainian refugee who was stabbed to death last summer was vandalized.
Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee, is depicted in the mural from the shoulders up, wearing a blue shirt and soft gaze on her face. Her name is written in white above the dates 2002-2025. Zarutska was fatally stabbed last summer while riding a train home from work in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Republicans, including President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, have blamed Democrats’ “soft-on-crime” policies for the stabbing. The man charged in Zarutska’s death has a record of robbery and had been arrested 14 times in the last 10 years.
The mural, along with similar ones in major cities around the U.S., was part of a campaign backed by Elon Musk and launched by Eoghan McCabe, CEO of artificial intelligence service Intercom.
As of Monday evening, the center of the mural was dotted with black splotches of paint.
Zoryana Smozhanyk, president and co-founder of the Ukrainian Daughters Foundation, said she was disappointed to see the mural damaged, even though she questioned some elements of it, like if Zarutska’s family was consulted and Musk’s ties to its funding.
“It’s a shame, and I don’t know who would do that,” she said. “Despite what anybody might think of the mural, it’s still, first of all, beautiful artwork and a beautiful commemoration. I don’t know what motivation anyone would have to deface it like that.”
Smozhanyk said people should keep Ukraine and its people in their minds — not just refugees such as Zarutska, but also people still in Ukraine.
“You have people that have been killed, and the thing that makes headlines is a picture of a woman,” Smozhanyk said. “I don’t want to devalue the tragic nature of her death … but the thing that gets talked about the most regarding Ukraine is a mural.”
Even before it was defaced, the mural received mixed reviews from the Ukrainian community. Some saw the mural, near the intersection of Montrose and Western, as a welcome homage to Zarutska and other Ukrainian refugees.
But others felt the mural was misguided and in poor taste. Zarutska’s family wasn’t asked permission to display her face and name prominently on a building, according to Mariya Dmytriv-Kapeniak, president of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America Illinois chapter, who said she’s connected to Zarutska’s community in North Carolina.
“If someone really cares about war refugees, there’s a lot of work you can do to help them, other than to paint a mural without family’s permission and just sign a poor girl’s name on it,” Dmytriv-Kapeniak said last month.
The Ukrainian National Museum of Chicago and Dmytriv-Kapeniak didn’t respond to requests for comment on the mural being defaced.
A similar mural was requested by a resident of the 36th Ward, Ald. Gilbert Villegas told the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America. Villegas’ office didn’t respond to requests for comment, and it’s unclear where that proposal stands and if another mural will be painted.
The owner of the building that displays the mural and artist of the mural, known as Sav45, didn’t respond to requests for comment.