a generation of Ukrainians burying their dead

In Ukraine, it is the cemetery of heroes. Each grave has its flag. In this blue and yellow ocean, Yulia Voronkova, a young widow, came to a grave. That of her husband, who died of a shrapnel in the heart three months ago. “He was everything to me, and I was everything to him. War is death, but I never thought it would take my husband“, she confides. She was 20 when she met him at the hospital. She was a nurse at the time, and he was her patient. Married, they were hoping for a child for the next year.

Their story is also that of a generation of men mown down by war. “Ukraine deserves this sacrifice, but how harsh. I believe in our victory, the country must keep hope. But as for me, my future is another story“, continues Yulia. Ukraine claims to lose between 100 and 200 fighters a day, men between 20 and 50 years old. In Sloviansk, in the Donbass (Ukraine), it is enough to read the dates of birth on the graves to confirm this On the morning of Thursday June 30, a young man of 26, orphan of father and mother, was buried by his fellow soldiers. Around his coffin, some soldiers are just 20 years old.