Ukraine devotes itself to honoring its dead and vindicating its resistance on the anniversary of the war

Ukraine has paid tribute to the fallen on the first anniversary of the great Russian invasion of the country, which began on February 24, 2022. As long as the war does not end, and that possibility is not in sight, this date is unofficially marked as the new day of the dead

Death is a daily drama that occupies a preferential place in the life of a country at war.

From north to south and from east to west, the honors have spread this Friday in the form of flowers, prayers, songs and tears.

Meanwhile, the kyiv and Moscow authorities offer figures of their casualties that are not real.

In war, figures are also weapons in the hands of each side, which uses them to further their cause.

Amid this uncertainty about the actual human impact, Western intelligence sources put deaths at around 25,000 to 30,000 on the Ukrainian side and around 100,000 on the Russian side.

Other sources raise the number of Ukrainian victims.

President Volodímir Zelenski, who became an influential figure in world politics by leading his country's resistance, received the Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, in Kiev to coincide with the anniversary.

The president of the neighboring country traveled accompanied by the first delivery of German-made Leopard 2 tanks that Ukraine has been demanding for months and that it will also receive from Spain.

Zelensky, although he does not stop asking for more and more weapons, has appreciated the help received from his allies throughout these months, since this support is what has allowed them to stop the attempt of Russian President Vladimir Putin to take control. of the country and set up a puppet government.

“The world is not forgetting Ukraine.

That allows us to stay strong, invincible ”, he thanked.

“If all our allies do their job,

Photos of eight of those killed at Russian hands in Bucha stand out above a red flower arrangement on one of the outer walls of what became the Kremlin's army headquarters in this town on the outskirts of Kiev.

Natalia Verbova, 50, caresses the first of those images.

She is Andrii Verbovii's, her husband.

She is accompanied by her, between two national flags, Vitalii Karpenko, Denis Rudenko, Sviatoslav Turkovskii, Anatolii Prikhidko, Andrii Dvornikov, Andrii Matviichuk, Valerii Kotenko.

The latter is the one who welcomed them into his home in the first hours of occupation of Bucha, when, according to the relatives have learned from the police, a young man betrayed them.

The group was captured on March 4, according to street camera footage obtained by

.

They were murdered that same day, according to investigations, although at first it was thought that it had been March 5, the date of death that appears in all the photos.

The bodies, some handcuffed according to photos from the Associated Press agency, remained in the same place until a month later, when the invading troops had to withdraw, leaving a trail of death and brutality behind them.

It is right there where the relatives have erected the floral offering and where this Friday they have been reminded in a simple but emotional act.

Some of them show on the mobile screen photos of the bodies scattered in the same spot on which they now have their feet.

400 civilian victims in a month of occupation

More than 400 civilians lost their lives in Bucha in the month long occupation and nightmare.

Some were, according to the first indications, tortured and murdered in cold blood.

Yablunska street, in whose number 144 is the building taken over as a command center by the Russians, was found strewn with corpses when they took to their heels after failing in their attempt to take Kiev.

“It is very difficult to assume what happened.

The bodies had traces of torture.

It is also a nightmare to know that they stayed here for a month.

We were looking for them with the hope that they were alive”, laments Natalia.

Next to her, Oleksander, 68 years old and father of Sviatoslav Turkovskii, another of the eight murdered.

“On February 23, my son had turned 35 and on the 24th the invasion began.

That day he called me and told me that he had been released from work to join the territorial defense.

The last contact I had with him was on March 4, when he sent me a message on his mobile saying that they were hiding at Valerii Kotenko's house.

He told me not to call him, that we couldn't see each other, ”recalls the father.

In the local cemetery, a priest prayed a response while several families of soldiers killed in combat attended with flowers that were later placed on their graves.

In the background, some crying and the sound of the freezing wind, which makes the flags and the plastic that wrap some of the bouquets flutter.

After singing the national anthem, each one goes to the grave of their loved one.

Anastasiya, 27, does not take her eyes off the photo of her husband, Yurii, who died at the age of 28 last August in Marinka (Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine).

Accompanied by her in-laws, the young woman explains that she has a son, Iván, who turned 10 the day before and that she does not stop remembering the best moments she lived with her father.

“Today is a very painful day.

On February 24 of last year our lives broke in two.

And it broke a second time with the death of my husband”, says Anastasiya.

"I can't feel more pain, but I also feel sorry for the rest of the victims," ​​she adds.

In Kiev, several men dressed as soldiers and several groups of women come to lay flowers on the wall that remembers those who have fallen since the war began in 2014 in eastern Ukraine.

Their faces, thousands, are added to the wall that flanks the monastery of San Miguel de las Cúpulas Doradas.

Olha, 40, goes there with a bouquet in the colors of the national flag, blue and yellow.

One of her portraits is of her husband, Ivan, who died near Bakhmut (Donetsk region) four months ago.

“Many of our people, our soldiers and our children are dying.

We look forward to victory every day.

It may be tomorrow, today…”.

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