Ukrainians brave Russian-mined cemetery to mourn the dead
By Joseph Campbell and Zohra Bensemra
TROSTYANETS, Ukraine (Reuters) – The handmade signal on the gate warns “The cemetery is mined. Hazard.” however residents of the previously occupied city of Trostyanets in northern Ukraine nonetheless come to go to the contemporary graves of household killed within the conflict.
The graveyard on this city in Sumy area has solely been partly made secure since Russian forces planted mines there as they pulled again in early April, cemetery supervisor Olena Matvienko mentioned.
“De-mining groups got here later and de-mined it partially. Then they did not go additional inside,” Matvienko mentioned on Saturday, standing within the cemetery the place various gravestones have been shattered or riddled with bullet holes.
Some areas have been nonetheless harmful for folks, she mentioned.
Even so mourners gathered round completely different graves, some clutching bunches of spring flowers.
A type of disregarding the warnings was Natalia Evdokimova, 46. She and her husband have been visiting the grave of their son Dmytro, a Ukrainian soldier who was killed on the northeastern frontline on March 29 and buried again residence quickly after Russian forces left the realm.
She mentioned her son, who was combating close to the city of Izyum in Kharkiv area, had been most fearful about what would possibly occur to his dad and mom below Russian occupation.
“‘Mother, go away, it is going to be too harmful in Trostyanets,’” Evdokimova recalled him saying, tears spilling down her cheeks. “And he went to hell himself, close to Izyum. And died there.”
Her husband stood silently on the flower-heaped grave. Earlier than they left, Evdokimova reached each her arms in direction of a framed photograph of her son that was hooked up to the grave marker, as if attempting to hug him.
Russia denies its troops kill or goal civilians or have carried out conflict crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine for the reason that Feb. 24 invasion. Reuters couldn’t independently confirm casualty estimates or accounts of deaths in Trostyanets.
The cemetery supervisor mentioned an extra 20 folks had lately been buried within the cemetery, who had died whereas Trostyanets was occupied.
Mayor Yuri Bova instructed Reuters that a minimum of 50 persons are estimated to have died or been killed whereas Russian forces managed the city, which had a pre-war inhabitants of round 20,000.
“A few of them have been simply shot on the road, some have been discovered with tied arms, eyes taped. We discovered folks in villages shot within the head,” he mentioned.
(Writing by Alessandra Prentice, Modifying by Angus MacSwan)
