A new mural of slain Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska that was funded in part by Elon Musk has popped up on a Brooklyn building — and furious local lefties claim it’s part of a right-wing plot.
The three-story painting of Zarutska— who made national headlines when she was stabbed to death by a homeless ex-con on a train in Charlotte, North Carolina in August — was installed on an apartment building in a trendy section of Bushwick a few weeks ago.
Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post
The artwork on the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Evergreen Street is part of a campaign launched by conservative tech CEO Eoghan McCabe to honor the 23-year-old aspiring artist with murals depicting her in several cities. He told The Post he wanted to highlight how crime in liberal areas can lead to tragedies like Zarutska’s death.
“I started this campaign to make sure that the story of Iryna does not disappear. Her murder is at the nexus of many issues plaguing American society. For example, one is the progressive approach to crime,” said.
McCabe, who runs the AI firm Intercom, donated $500,000 to the tribute initiative and collected $1 million from Musk, a spokeswoman for McCabe told The Post. They also raised $200,000 from smaller donors.
As images of the painting on the building, which is home to the Taiwanese dumpling restaurant Formosa, first got praise from those saddened by the young woman’s tragic loss.
“Beautiful!! What a lovely tribute to a beautiful girl and a beautiful life! RIP Iryna!! . . . I’m so sorry the USA failed you!!” said a user named Mary Signorino on a Facebook post that also showed other murals commissioned by McCabe in Washington DC, Miami and Los Angeles.
But a backlash to the campaign by the conservative billionaire came quickly, as lefties on a Bushwick neighborhood reddit page angrily called the the mural propaganda from “anti immigrant fascists.”
“It has become part of the endless fodder that balloons our police department budgets and welcomes masked unaccountable thugs into our neighborhoods to kidnap our friends, family, and neighbors,” the Redditor wrote, in an apparent reference to immigration enforcement,” a user on the site fumed.
Another critic fumed, “This needs to come down. Of course she deserves to be memorialized, but using her memory to stoke racial tensions is sick. The motivation behind this is evil.”
Others said they suspected Musk zeroed in on Brooklyn simply to stoke political tensions.
“This woman — it’s unfortunate what happened to her — but how do you connect her to Bushwick?” Joe, a 42-year-old graphic artist who lives nearby, told The Post Friday.
“A lot of people around here don’t like him so maybe this is his way to use his money to stick it to us. Go find somewhere else where they support you and your politics,” he said.
Dylan Goodwin, 38, said he loved the mural, painted by Connecticut-based artist Ben Keller, but hated one of the people paying for it.
“This is nice, but, you know, then you say Elon Musk, and I can’t stand the guy,” said Goodwin, who works in the film industry.
McCabe himself, who donated to President Trump’s presidential campaign, has also made headlines for right-wing stances, such as calling for the “rapid public execution” of killers.
“I do think that rapid, public executions for crimes like this are a spiritual goal that we should point ourselves towards. I worry about Western society if we can’t react in proportion to how evil this is,” he wrote on X in September, in reference to Zarutska’s murder.
He told The Post Friday by email that: “The vast majority of violent crime is perpetrated by a very small fraction of the population. When cities refuse to incarcerate these people, they get a lot more violent crime. Iryna’s killer had been arrested 14 times before he executed her.”
When asked about the backlash from the left to the mural campaign he said it was only a small part of the reaction.
“The campaign has received remarkably broad support across the political spectrum. We’re aware of very little discontent,” he said.
