The grave of Oleksiï, born on February 19, 1976 and died on June 30, 2022, was dug quickly, next to the cultural center of Siversk, in eastern Ukraine. A small mound of earth covered with two concrete barriers that act as a tombstone. A bouquet of yellow flowers was placed by a benevolent hand. And an inscription, on a cardboard: “Rest in peace brother, we love you, we remember, we mourn you.”
“What can I tell you? He was sitting there in front of his house, there were two missiles and he was killed instantly”, told AFP Valeri, a 56-year-old neighbor. Difficult to know more about the victim. Do not linger more than a few minutes in one place in Siversk.
The grave was dug on a sidewalk, in front of one of the only buildings still standing in Siversk. Pounded relentlessly by Russian forces for weeks, the small eastern town, located right on the front line, exudes an end-of-the-world atmosphere. Siversk breathes fear and death. It is a combat zone, the Russian troops are on the edge of the city, and the Ukrainian artillery fires relentlessly.
The streets are riddled with huge craters, the buildings destroyed or blackened by fire, a dog and a cat are playing around a rocket planted in the sidewalk. Through the broken windows of the first floors of the buildings, one sees the relics of a life left in haste: dressers, family photos, overturned armchairs. The missiles fly over the city, fired on either side by the Russians and the Ukrainians.
Despite everything, a few people circulate in the streets, on bicycles or on foot, with this indecipherable expression of those who are beyond fear. At the exit of the cellars where the civilians who remained in this city, which previously had some 10,000 inhabitants, take refuge, braziers are installed for cooking. Some, however, evacuate. They waited until the last moment to flee.
A torn Ukrainian flag flies over what remains of a building blackened by flames, probably a hotel for workers. And in front of a house half reduced to ashes, appears the ominous vision of an empty wooden coffin, partially destroyed. No one had time to put the person it was intended for in it.