The cycle "Saints of the Frontline" was created during trips to the frontline from improvised materials: coal, chalk, pensils, clay etc. - Everything that could be found on the ruins of houses, schools, digged out of the tranches during hiding from shelling.
The frontline is a space essentially turned into desert, and that is why the icons depict the so called desert fathers. They are holy monks, ascetics who ran away from society into the desert - to fight against the sin, against evil. The frontline is a space where apart from praying to God, hoping for His mercy, a person has nothing remained.
It is interesting that one of the main points in Christian ascetism is the struggle, battle with sin, Satan, often described metapforically as military opposition. The main idea of the cycle is the impossibility of defeating the evil around you without having defeated evil within yourself, in ones heart, in ones soul.
