A poignant symbol of the devastation caused by the Ukraine war was positioned at Peveril Point in Swanage, Dorset, to draw attention to the fact that it is four years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Proving quite a talking point, the pop up art installation by artist Robert Marshall, is of a front door rescued from a town in Ukraine called Toretsk which has been destroyed by the war.
Robert Marshall at Peveril Point with his sculpture which was just on show for the day on the fourth anniversary, with the Ukranian for ‘people’ written on the door
Bullet holes through the door
The sculpture was displayed on Tuesday 24th February 2026 on the headland facing east towards Ukraine.
Although originally a normal front door, the word ‘people’ was written in Ukraine on it to indicate civilians were inside, but despite this, bullet holes go right through the door.
The door rescued from the Ukranian town of Toresk was displayed in a prominent position with Old Harry and Ballard Down in view
The bullet holes
“Humanitarian piece of work”
The artist behind the creation Robert Marshall, who lives in Wareham, said:
“Three days into the war I saw an image on TV of a door being used as a stretcher and it inspired me to create a humanitarian piece of work.
“But to do this I needed to get some doors from Ukraine. Fortunately, I knew a Ukrainian called Yuliia living in Swanage and she was able to ask members of her family to rescue one for me during a lull in fighting, and actually they sent back two.
“One of the doors I have called Collateral Damage and that has been displayed throughout 2025 including at Bath Abbey and is currently at the Ukraine Church in Gloucester.
“This is my new sculpture and I have called it People, after the word on the door. I thought it was appropriate to display it for the first time in Swanage on the anniversary of the start of the war. It has been going on for four years – almost as long as World War One.”
While the front of the door faced Ukraine, the back faced Swanage
A haunting sculpture which reflects the grim nature of war
Other pop up art
Robert has used doors before to make a point when in January 2024 he created the artwork Custodian and displayed it temporarily at Sheps Hollow at the north end of Swanage Bay.
It was a work about environmental change – encouraging each generation to leave the world in a better place, by passing the baton on from one generation to the next.
This was followed up in June 2024 when he created a huge tree made up of plastic bottles for Purbeck Art Weeks.
Over a year, his family used 700 plastic bottles and he displayed the Water Bottle Tree at Durlston Country Park to show exactly what that sort of waste looked like.
Custodian popped up at Sheps Hollow
A tree at Durlston made up of single use plastic bottles
Around 1,500 Ukranians living in Dorset
Now Robert’s attention has turned to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the displacement of so many civilians.
At the start of the invasion, lots of Ukrainians fled their homes and many ended up living in Swanage as generous people opened their homes to the refugees under a government scheme.
There are about 217,000 Ukrainians living in the UK with around 1,500 in Dorset. There are still Ukrainians living in Swanage, including Yulia, whose husband remains in Ukraine, while her children are in Poland.
The remains of the house in Toretsk in Eastern Ukraine where the doors came from
Yuliia who now lives in Swanage visited the artwork
The Ukranian sunflowers are a symbol of hope
“Just want to live an ordinary life”
Robert Marshall added:
“This is a reflective piece of work to highlight a lot of suffering all round the world of ordinary people. For Yulia she says she can’t see an end to this war and really misses a normal life like big family meals.
“I think Putin has no intention of ending this war. When you speak to Ukrainians they don’t care about politics – they just want to live an ordinary life.
“People have said they are so glad that someone who isn’t Ukrainian is speaking up for them and my hope is that my work does that.”
Robert with the other door retrieved from Ukraine by Yuliia’s family called Collateral Damage, because as he says, bombing civilians with impunity is often dismissed as ‘just collateral damage’
Further information
- More about Robert Marshall’s work on Facebook
