Ukraine exhuming old graves to bury today's dead soldiers – NYT
Ukrainian cemeteries are filling up with the bodies of soldiers killed on the frontline, so much that authorities sometimes have to exhume old graves to make room for the newly deceased, The New York Times has reported. Russia has warned that by arming Kiev, Western nations were increasing the cost of the war for Ukrainians.
The Monday article in the Times reported on the “seemingly countless funerals” taking place in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. The magnitude of frontline losses is being felt by the community, as fresh graves multiply in the cemeteries, the newspaper said.
A groundskeeper at one told the US outlet that since the beginning of hostilities in February last year, the military burials in her care grew in number from a small cluster to some 500. The management decided to exhume unmarked graves from World War I to make room for the newly deceased, she added.
In another example this week, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, another western Ukrainian regional capital, announced that visitors to the city cemetery will be able to rent bicycles and electric scooters. Ruslan Martsinkiv said the service was his administration’s response to complaints by relatives who found it difficult to move around the rapidly growing premises.
Both Ukraine and Russia refuse to publish their own frontline casualties and each claim that their opponent has sustained more than they report. Kiev is currently engaged in a counteroffensive against Russian defensive positions, trying to make use of the tanks and other military equipment supplied to it by Western nations. The push has so far reportedly come at a great cost with no significant territorial gains achieved.
Moscow has accused the US and its allies of causing the armed conflict in the first place, by moving NATO infrastructure into Ukraine and threatening Russian national security.
Western nations that arm Kiev allegedly stopped it from striking a peace deal in the first months of the conflict, and are waging a proxy war on Russia “to the last Ukrainian,” officials in Moscow have claimed. The Russian government said it was determined to safeguard its nation despite the cost.
