The quiet of a Kyiv cemetery is broken by a trumpet salute, then a burst of rifle fire. Soldiers stretch a Ukrainian flag over a shiny wooden coffin and stand silently alongside in the sparkling white snow. A woman cries, her face crumpling.
Natalia is burying her husband for the second time. Vitaly was killed three years ago fighting in the eastern Donbas, and his first grave was in their home town of Slovyansk. But Russian forces have advanced since then, and the area is increasingly under attack.
So Natalia had her husband's grave exhumed and Vitaly's remains moved hundreds of miles to Ukraine's capital. When we buried him in Slovyansk, land was being liberated and we thought the war would soon end, Natalia explains, after the reburial ceremony conducted with military honours. But the frontline is constantly moving closer, and I was scared Vitaly might end up under occupation.
Vitaly, a ceramics artist, volunteered to defend his country in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022. He didn't want to, but he had to do it. He was a patriot, Natalia shares, through her tears. Pregnant at the time of his death, Vitaly never got to meet their daughter.
The decision to move Vitaly's body from the land where he was born and fought was extremely painful. It was very hard, emotionally. But it was the right decision, Natalia reflects. It would have been far harder to leave him, to know that he had stayed.
As attacks escalate on Ukrainian cities, Natalia fears for the future. Living in Slovyansk, she notes, A few months ago, the attacks were weekly. Now it's every couple of days. This urgency reflects the wider struggle many Ukrainians face as peace talks are underway, yet the specter of further Russian aggression looms large.
In Kyiv, as Natalia stands by the freshly dug grave, she expresses a desire to see her daughter connect with her father's memory, anticipating a future where she can share her own hopes of expanding their family, using the sperm they froze just days before Vitaly was killed. She watches videos of him, looks at photos, and she loves him very much even though they never met, Natalia smiles amidst the shoveling of earth onto her husband's coffin. I just don't believe Russia will stop.
