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Digging Up Old Graves to Make Room for Newly Fallen Soldiers
For close to 15 months, the bodies of fallen soldiers have steadily filled up a hillside military cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Now, the old, unmarked graves of those killed in past wars are being exhumed to make way for the seemingly endless stream of dead since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday afternoon, half a dozen gravediggers took a break in the shade, waiting for the latest coffin to inter at the cemetery, called Lychakiv. Smoking cigarettes and shielding themselves from the sun, they lamented the devastation that Russia had wrought. And they said they were bracing for more deaths as the fighting grew more intense during Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Fierce battles are playing out on the front line in the country’s east and south, with Ukraine reporting on Monday that it had recaptured eight settlements over two weeks of “offensive actions.” Hanna Malyar, a deputy defense minister, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian units had advanced about 4.3 miles and retaken an area around 44 square miles in the south. Among the settlements reclaimed, she said, was the village of Piatykhatky, confirming Russian reports over the weekend.
While the recapture of Piatykhatky, in the Zaporizhzhia region, is evidence that Ukraine’s forces continue to advance, it is not a significant military breakthrough. Like the other villages recaptured, this one is small — Piatykhatky tras*lates to “five houses” — and claiming them has come at the cost of Ukrainian lives and advanced Western equipment.
“The situation in the east is difficult now,” Ms. Malyar wrote. “The enemy has raised its forces and is conducting an active offensive in the Lyman and Kupyan directions, trying to seize the initiative from us.” But she added, “Our troops act courageously in the face of the enemy’s superiority in forces and means and do not allow the enemy to advance.”
Image
Soldiers carrying the coffin of Mr. Didukh, 34, who was killed by a mine last week on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.
A British defense intelligence report said on Sunday that both armies were suffering significant casualties from the current fighting, and military experts have said that months of artillery duels and trench warfare most likely lie ahead.
toll from the war. The Kremlin has not updated its official casualty count since September, when the defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, said nearly 6,000 Russians had been killed. Experts considered that number low at the time.
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Leaked Pentagon documents published in April estimated that Ukraine had suffered 124,500 to 131,000 casualties, with up to 17,500 killed in action, while Russians had 189,500 to 223,000 casualties, including up to 43,000 killed in action.
Image
Photographs of Ukrainian soldiers killed during Russia’s invasion were displayed during the funeral for Bohdan Didukh and Oleh Didukh, 52.
A team of often-anonymous researchers inside and outside Russia, led by the Mediazona news organization and the BBC News Russian service, has compiled an independent tally of confirmed deaths that is updated every two weeks. Last week, the tally surpassed 25,000 victims, also considered an undercount. The team uses open-source materials like obituaries in local newspapers and cemetery visits for its count. Since the effort started last year, multiple regions in Russia have banned obituaries to try to camouflage the number.
The magnitude of the losses is being felt in communities like the one in Lviv, starkly visible in the growing number of military graves in cemeteries large and small around the country.
On Monday, two men who died hundreds of miles apart were buried next to each other. Bohdan Didukh, 34, was killed by a mine last week in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine, where the first stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive began. Three days later, Oleh Didukh, 52, died of a heart attack while serving in an air-defense unit in the country’s west.
The men, who shared a last name but never knew each other in life, were united in death. They were honored side by side in a joint funeral in Lviv. Their families were overcome with grief as gravediggers shoveled soil on top of their coffins.
)
www.firstpost.com
The community is deeply affected by the scale of losses endured on the frontline, resulting in a rapid proliferation of fresh graves within local cemeteries.
A groundskeeper interviewed by The New York Times shared the harrowing reality that military burials under her care have grown from a small cluster to approximately 500 since the onset of hostilities in February of the previous year.
To accommodate the mounting number of fallen soldiers, cemetery management has made the difficult decision to exhume unmarked graves from World War I.
In a separate development this week, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, another regional capital in western Ukraine, introduced a unique response to address the challenges faced by grieving relatives.
Ruslan Martsinkiv announced plans to provide bicycles and electric scooters for rent to visitors of the city cemetery, easing their movement within the rapidly expanding grounds.
The situation unfolding in Ukrainian cemeteries paints a sombre picture of the mounting casualties of war, compelling authorities to resort to extraordinary measures to address the lack of space
For close to 15 months, the bodies of fallen soldiers have steadily filled up a hillside military cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Now, the old, unmarked graves of those killed in past wars are being exhumed to make way for the seemingly endless stream of dead since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Monday afternoon, half a dozen gravediggers took a break in the shade, waiting for the latest coffin to inter at the cemetery, called Lychakiv. Smoking cigarettes and shielding themselves from the sun, they lamented the devastation that Russia had wrought. And they said they were bracing for more deaths as the fighting grew more intense during Ukraine’s counteroffensive.
Fierce battles are playing out on the front line in the country’s east and south, with Ukraine reporting on Monday that it had recaptured eight settlements over two weeks of “offensive actions.” Hanna Malyar, a deputy defense minister, wrote on the Telegram messaging app that Ukrainian units had advanced about 4.3 miles and retaken an area around 44 square miles in the south. Among the settlements reclaimed, she said, was the village of Piatykhatky, confirming Russian reports over the weekend.
While the recapture of Piatykhatky, in the Zaporizhzhia region, is evidence that Ukraine’s forces continue to advance, it is not a significant military breakthrough. Like the other villages recaptured, this one is small — Piatykhatky tras*lates to “five houses” — and claiming them has come at the cost of Ukrainian lives and advanced Western equipment.
“The situation in the east is difficult now,” Ms. Malyar wrote. “The enemy has raised its forces and is conducting an active offensive in the Lyman and Kupyan directions, trying to seize the initiative from us.” But she added, “Our troops act courageously in the face of the enemy’s superiority in forces and means and do not allow the enemy to advance.”
Image
Soldiers carrying the coffin of Mr. Didukh, 34, who was killed by a mine last week on the front line in the Zaporizhzhia region.
A British defense intelligence report said on Sunday that both armies were suffering significant casualties from the current fighting, and military experts have said that months of artillery duels and trench warfare most likely lie ahead.
toll from the war. The Kremlin has not updated its official casualty count since September, when the defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, said nearly 6,000 Russians had been killed. Experts considered that number low at the time.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
Leaked Pentagon documents published in April estimated that Ukraine had suffered 124,500 to 131,000 casualties, with up to 17,500 killed in action, while Russians had 189,500 to 223,000 casualties, including up to 43,000 killed in action.
Image
Photographs of Ukrainian soldiers killed during Russia’s invasion were displayed during the funeral for Bohdan Didukh and Oleh Didukh, 52.
A team of often-anonymous researchers inside and outside Russia, led by the Mediazona news organization and the BBC News Russian service, has compiled an independent tally of confirmed deaths that is updated every two weeks. Last week, the tally surpassed 25,000 victims, also considered an undercount. The team uses open-source materials like obituaries in local newspapers and cemetery visits for its count. Since the effort started last year, multiple regions in Russia have banned obituaries to try to camouflage the number.
The magnitude of the losses is being felt in communities like the one in Lviv, starkly visible in the growing number of military graves in cemeteries large and small around the country.
On Monday, two men who died hundreds of miles apart were buried next to each other. Bohdan Didukh, 34, was killed by a mine last week in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine, where the first stages of Ukraine’s counteroffensive began. Three days later, Oleh Didukh, 52, died of a heart attack while serving in an air-defense unit in the country’s west.
The men, who shared a last name but never knew each other in life, were united in death. They were honored side by side in a joint funeral in Lviv. Their families were overcome with grief as gravediggers shoveled soil on top of their coffins.
Grim Realities of War: Ukrainian cemeteries exhume graves to accommodate mounting soldier casualties
To accommodate the mounting number of fallen soldiers, cemetery management has made the difficult decision to exhume unmarked graves from World War I
www.firstpost.com
The community is deeply affected by the scale of losses endured on the frontline, resulting in a rapid proliferation of fresh graves within local cemeteries.
A groundskeeper interviewed by The New York Times shared the harrowing reality that military burials under her care have grown from a small cluster to approximately 500 since the onset of hostilities in February of the previous year.
To accommodate the mounting number of fallen soldiers, cemetery management has made the difficult decision to exhume unmarked graves from World War I.
In a separate development this week, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, another regional capital in western Ukraine, introduced a unique response to address the challenges faced by grieving relatives.
Ruslan Martsinkiv announced plans to provide bicycles and electric scooters for rent to visitors of the city cemetery, easing their movement within the rapidly expanding grounds.
The situation unfolding in Ukrainian cemeteries paints a sombre picture of the mounting casualties of war, compelling authorities to resort to extraordinary measures to address the lack of space
