Reporting
Ukraine: at the Kharkiv military cemetery, burials every day
Audio 01:18
The burial of soldier Igor Koteliuk, at the Kharkiv cemetery.
© Anastasia Becchio / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Wagner claims to have taken the locality of Paraskoviïvka, bordering Bakhmout, in eastern Ukraine.
For more than six months, the paramilitary group and the Russian army have been trying to capture her.
Moscow's forces managed to cut several roads leading there, vital for the supply of Ukrainian troops there.
The fighting was fierce and the losses heavy on both sides.
At the military cemetery in Kharkiv, four to six burials are celebrated every day of the week.
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With our special correspondents in Kharkiv,
Anastasia Becchio
&
Boris Vichith
A salute of three bursts, three shots fired in the air in honor of Igor Koteliuk, 45, who died near Bakhmout.
Family and friends are gathered around the open coffin, while the priest, Father Alexandre Mazepa, recites the prayer for the dead.
We see that many of our soldiers are being killed.
The Church prays for those who sacrifice their lives and die as heroes.
After the final farewell, the coffin is sealed, lowered into the pit and covered with earth.
The widow, Svetlana, arranges the red roses and funeral wreaths in the colors of Ukraine on the mound.
When the war started, he went to enlist on the first day.
He was retired from the police.
I said to him: Igor, don't go.
But he replied that it was his duty.
He loved life, he was cheerful and he was a Ukrainian patriot.
He was very fond of his country, the Ukrainian language, although he most often spoke Russian.
I always said to myself that he would pass between the bullets, I believed in it, I hoped that everything would be fine.
Three bereaved families celebrate a funeral simultaneously, a few meters apart.
The yellow and blue flags, planted on each grave, stretch as far as the eye can see.
The military square has grown by more than 500 graves over the past year.
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►Read also: War in Ukraine: in Odessa, it's time for "derussification"
“We got away with it so far and we can manage”
Russian forces have intensified their attacks along the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
The governor of the Luhansk region reported a significant increase in attacks.
As February 24 approaches, the Ukrainians also fear a massive attack on the country: "
They are trying to accumulate enough missiles for, on the occasion of the anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine
", estimates the office of the Ukrainian president.
The Russians will want to show that they still have ammunition, estimates the adviser to the Ukrainian president, Mykhaylo Podolyak.
A feeling shared by Anastasia Gordevska, 21, engaged in the 124th brigade of the territorial defense of Kherson.
"
I think they're up to something, something serious is going to happen,"
she said.
We found that they liked anniversary dates.
They are obsessed with dates.
But we too are preparing.
We got away with it so far and we can manage.
»
Roman Thchukhalov, from a military intelligence unit, also expects a major attack, especially since the Russians cannot claim great success on the ground.
"
They have nothing to be proud of this past year,"
he said.
They were driven out of kyiv and its region, they were driven out of the regions of Chernihiv, Kharkiv… They occupy the region of Kherson, but without Kherson.
If we do the count after a year, their operation failed.
»
Russian strikes continue to target vital infrastructure in Ukraine.
However, kyiv announces that it has regained sufficient electricity production capacity to avoid excessive shortages.
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