By Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv, Ukraine, Jan 1 (EFE). – Thousands of Ukrainians went to the graves of their loved ones killed during the Russian invasion, as attacks continued to sow death across the country on the first day of 2025.
Hundreds of small Christmas trees decorate the graves at a rapidly growing military cemetery in central Lviv.
Clementines, candy, toys, and plates of “kutia” – a traditional porridge cooked at Christmas – lie untouched on the graves, a sign that the buried are still part of their families’ lives.
“I can’t accept that Orest is gone. It still seems to me that he’s out there somewhere in Zhytomyr, where he died of a heart attack,” Hanna Yamros told EFE as tears welled up in her eyes.
Hanna, a woman in her 70s, has just replaced the old candles on her son’s grave with new ones to commemorate his death one year ago.
A bitter day
Hanna’s health prevents her from going to the cemetery often. But she couldn’t stay home on the first anniversary of Orest’s death, so she came with her neighbor, whose son is also buried here.
The woman, overwhelmed by grief over Orest’s death, says she didn’t feel anything on New Year’s Eve.
Meanwhile, her second son, Igor, is fighting in the army, as the rest of the family has scattered across Ukraine and abroad.
Orest spent only two months in the army after being drafted. The war killed him during training even before he saw the enemy, she explained.
He was the head of a construction team, a well-liked man who didn’t try to avoid military service once he received a draft order.
“He was ready to serve because his younger brother Igor had volunteered for the army right after the invasion upon returning from the Netherlands, where he lived,” Hanna explained.
Orest was only worried about his children, ages 5 and 11, and about who would take care of his mother and them if something happened, she recalls.
Hoping for peace
Hanna is now worried about Igor, her only remaining son. After his brother’s death, Igor left his unit’s staff to a kamikaze drone unit to avenge his brother’s death, she says.
“I ask him to call me three times a day so I know he is alive. He does so whenever he can, joking that he only has to report to his commander once a day,” she says.
As she speaks, dozens of smiling men peer out from the photos attached to the crosses on each grave – as is customary in Ukraine – while their relatives tidy their graves or stand before them lost in thought.
“So many young, beautiful boys have died. My heart is breaking,” says Hanna.
Most of all, she wishes the war would end soon and “all the children still alive” would return home.
She follows the news closely and hopes Donald Trump can do something to end the war.
“It’s hard to get along with the Russians. They lie all the time. They say one thing and think another,” she says.
No respite at New Year’s
As the grieving mother leaves, music plays at the entrances to the cemetery. A small crowd has gathered for the funeral of another soldier, 27-year-old Sergiy Melnyk.
Russian attacks on the frontline and against Ukrainian cities continued on the first day of the new year, meaning that more graves would soon appear in cemeteries across the country.
At least two people died in the drone attack on Kyiv. Residents of Kherson also received no respite from constant drone and artillery attacks as one 23-year-old man was killed on Wednesday morning.
“Even on New Year’s Eve, Russia was focused solely on inflicting pain on Ukraine, launching 111 attack drones against our cities,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, referring to the Russian New Year’s Eve attacks.
ar/mcd
