“I see all of them. They repeat in my memory.” Many Ukrainian soldiers die on the battlefield far away from their hometowns. 1843 magazine meets the people working tirelessly to identify and return them to their families
“Before, this was an empty place,” said Father Dmytro Povorotniy, gesturing with a sweep of his arm towards ranks of graves topped with black earth. They lay beneath a canopy of blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flags luffing in the wind. “Everything began in 2014,” he said, when war broke between the Ukrainian army and Russian-backed separatists in.
The city of Dnipro, close to the front lines to the south and east, is a hub for Ukrainian casualties. Krasnopilske is the only municipal cemetery with enough space for the dead. The civilian part of the cemetery nestles in a hollow; the military section sits higher, on the crest of the hill, open to the sky and exposed to the wind. It has become one of the main resting places for fallen Ukrainian soldiers.
“So many I’ve seen buried with my own eyes,” said Father Roman, young and rosy-cheeked, as he gazed over the lines of humped earth. “There are more than 2,000 here and this is only one cemetery. There were so many funerals during the counter-offensive in September, it was one after another.” He excused himself. It was Maundy Thursday and he had to prepare for Easter.
Volodya pointed to the line of unknown soldiers’ graves behind his brother’s. “There were 25 buried the same day as my brother, and only four of them had been identified.” Unknown soldiers are buried with military honours. The ceremony is officiated by a priest, a rabbi and an imam, which covers most eventualities. If a body is identified at a later date, it is exhumed and returned to the family.
The dead are recovered from the battlefield, either by ordinary soldiers or dedicated teams, who are also trained to retrieve personal items that may help in identification. The bodies and body parts arrive at the morgue in varying conditions. Some have been buried in shallow graves and disinterred when areas were liberated; some have been found in collapsed trenches or beneath rubble after several weeks or months; some have been burnt. In winter the bodies are better preserved.
He showed me the picture of a blackened shoulder: they had analysed the pattern of a tattoo and matched it to family photographs. Recently, using medical records, they were able to identify a soldier using a tiny square of perforated titanium that had been used to pin a cranial fracture. His most difficult task is ferrying the exchanged Ukrainian bodies back home. “There are families that have been waiting months or over a year. They have lived with the small hope that their loved one is still alive in captivity, or that there has been a mistake. When you bring these bodies back you are destroying their hope.”
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