One of the most extraordinary features of the Euromaidan movement in Ukraine is that it has sparked a welter of artistic efforts to capture the national spirit.

Artists can be seen painting in Independent Square and their works are on the walls of the Globus shopping centre.

So Euromaidan is not only a political movement but it has a cultural, artistic impetus.

Apart from the art there’s also constant entertainment from the main stage which has featured such magnificent acts as Dakh Daughters about whom I could gurgle all day.

To walk around unpoliced, almost-anarchic central Kyiv this month has been to witness a surreal post-Apocalypse village in action.

And none of this has felt threatening or oppressive.

Marketing messages have been supplanted by ice sculptures, art, cartoons (usually abusive) and sloganeering.

People have pinned abusive cartoons and drawings to pillars or to the flag-strewn frame that should be bearing the city’s Christmas Tree display.

The tree is whirl of blue and yellow Ukraine flags, often bearing the name of the town or city of its owner.

Cartoons and slogans, mainly in Ukrainian, are pinned there.

The ‘tree’ in itself is a strange type of artistic creation.

A string of works stretches out across the shopping centre wall – all appear to have been painted nearby before the police raided Independence Square earlier this week. My favourite is the one at the top of this item.

Marvellous venom directed at the police, encapsulating the events of Nov 30/Dec 1, which have sparked a national crisis in Ukraine and could well prove to have long-lasting impact on the country.