A national institution in Ukraine has begun to repair a mural painted by the anonymous artist Banksy in a town devastated by the Russian invasion.

The artwork was one of seven paintings unveiled in Kyiv and surrounding towns in November, 2022.

The mural shows a man scrubbing his body in a bathtub. It was painted using black and white spray paint on the wall of a badly-damaged apartment building.

The piece has deteriorated in the more than one and a half years since its creation. So it was removed on Wednesday, along with the wallpaper it was painted on, and transferred to a national institution specializing in art restoration.

Workers at the national research and restoration center of Ukraine were seen on Friday carefully removing the dust on the painting's surface using cotton pads soaked in a cleaning solution. They then turned the piece over and gently wiped off mold.

The center says a detailed study and analysis of the artwork is planned, as well as work to plug holes in the painting. It expects to take at least one year to complete the repair work.

The center's director general, Svitlana Strielnikova, says the Banksy graffiti will be extremely difficult to restore because it has been seriously damaged. But she says it needs to be preserved, describing it as an echo of the war.

She says the center faces a shortage of materials needed for the art restoration work, and called for support from other countries.