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Ukrainian couple turns ammo boxes into Christian icons

This couple turns military ammo boxes into Christian icons

Location: Kyiv, Ukraine

Oleksandr Klymenko and Sofia Atlantova’s project ‘Buy an icon – save a life’

has raised $300,000 for a volunteer field hospital

treating soldiers in the conflict in eastern Ukraine

(SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN ARTIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF ART PROJECT 'BUY AN ICON - SAVE A LIFE', SOFIA ATLANTOVA, SAYING: (WHILE DEMONSTRATING ICON)"Here is a piece from a box for hand-held machine gun ammunition. It is either a bottom or top, I can't say now. It was not made of wood, it looks like fibreboard. We also use this material, though it changes its shape as time passes. So it needs a thicker preparatory coat."

(SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) UKRAINIAN ARTIST AND CO-FOUNDER OF ART PROJECT 'BUY AN ICON - SAVE A LIFE', OLEKSANDR KLYMENKO, SAYING: (AS HE OPEN AN AMMUNITION BOX)"An ammunition box - like a coffin - is taken from under the ground, where it was previously stored. Once it is opened, death breaks out of it and destroys everything around. We do something very different with it - we transform the atrocities which broke out of the box by painting life here. (POINTING ON BOX COVER)"