Written by Oscar Holland, CNN
Contributors Josh Pennington, CNN
The ringleader of a group that allegedly tried to steal a Banksy mural from a wall in Ukraine faces up to 12 years in prison, the country’s interior ministry said on Monday.
The suspect, who was not named, was served with a “suspect notice” after police arrested the alleged thieves who were attempting to remove the artwork from a house destroyed by Russian shelling in the town of Hostomel last month. 
The group successfully removed the mural from the wall before being arrested. Credit: Andrey Nebitov/Telegram
The mural depicts a woman in a gas mask carrying a fire extinguisher and is one of several works the British street artist has completed in cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, in the wake of the Russian invasion.
According to police, the group removed the mural from a wall and attempted to transport it from the site using wooden planks. The suspects, who come from Kyiv and the central Ukrainian city of Cherkassy, were “arrested on the spot,” said the head of the military administration in the Kyiv region, Oleksii Kuleba, when they were arrested in early December.
“These paintings are a symbol of our fight against the enemy,” Kuleba said on his Telegram channel after the arrests, adding that the mural itself was undamaged. “These are the stories of the support and solidarity of the entire civilized world with Ukraine. Let us do everything we can to preserve the street art works as a symbol of our future victory.”
Banksy shares a behind-the-scenes video from Ukraine
Monday’s statement said the suspects were arrested “thanks to the vigilance of locals, police and other security forces.” The ministry also said that the subsequent investigation valued the artwork at more than 9 million hryvnia ($244,000).
In November, Banksy unveiled a mural of a gymnast balancing on a pile of rubble on the wall of a damaged building in the liberated city of Borodianka. 
The mural is from a building that was severely damaged by Russian shelling. Credit: Andrey Nebitov/Telegram
The anonymous street artist later confirmed to The Art Newspaper that he had completed a total of seven new works in Ukraine, including a mural depicting a man taking a bath amid the damage from Russian shelling in the village of Horenka.
In a video posted to Instagram, Banksy shared footage from his time in the country and concluded with a message that read, “In solidarity with the people of Ukraine.”