Artist and anti-nuclear activist Karipbek Kuyukov walked through the halls of UN Headquarters in New York on Monday alongside diplomats, scientists and survivors, carrying a message he has spent his life delivering: no one should ever again suffer what his generation endured.
Mr. Kuyukov, who paints holding the brush with his lips and toes, was among the participants of a symbolic walk ahead of the General Assembly’s high-level meeting on the occasion of the International Day against Nuclear Tests, marked annually on 29 August.
The short procession, part of the #StepUp4Disarmament campaign, ended in front of a large photograph on display in the General Assembly building, depicting people demanding the closure of the Semipalatinsk site.
“I would like to tell our story, the story of Kazakhstan,” Mr. Kuyukov told UN News.