By Rostyslav Averchuk
Lviv, Ukraine, (EFE).- On the fourth anniversary of the Russian full-scale invasion, families of thousands of fallen Ukrainian soldiers visit the graves of their loved ones to mark their contribution to limiting Russian advances, amid hope their sacrifice came not in vain.
“Despite the pain and the great sadness that each of us feels today, in my heart there is a lot of love and gratitude, and faith that everything will be fine”, 40-year-old widow Iryna Farion tells EFE at Lviv Military Cemetery.
A smiling young man, Oleksandr Alimov, looks from a photo on a grave nearby, adorned with multiple tokens of affection brought by family, such as a small piece of waffle cake, his favorite.
Pain and hope
Iryna remembers the pain and the incomprehension she felt upon the news of the invasion, exactly four years ago. “Even though he had never held weapons before, Oleksandr couldn’t stay idle”, his wife recounts.
As many civilians rushed to join the army, there were long queues at recruitment centers and Oleksandr, a programmer, only succeeded in joining the military on his third try.
He served, and was killed by a sniper in December 2022 in Luhansk, part of the Donbas region. Russia currently demands this area in exchange for a vague possibility of a ceasefire.
“They lacked weapons as Russia has advantage in everything. However, they compensated for it with friendship and determination”, says Iryna.
Four years later, she retains her faith that Ukraine can defeat the enemy, noting the importance of support from the country’s foreign partners. “It’s a matter of defending our common values”, she underlines.
Iryna recently gave birth to a girl named Oleksandra thanks to the reproductive material they stored before Oleksandr joined the army. Iryna sees her future only in Ukraine.
“I would like to come here one day and tell him that we won, and Ukraine is whole again. I am against compromises and believe the enemy must be held accountable for what they have done. I believe that one day it will happen”, she underlined.
A sacrifice
“My son, Bogdan, always dreamt of liberating Mariupol”, says 45-year-old Natalia Kozak, who brought a cup of coffee, his favorite drink, along with some of his preferred candies to Bogdan’s grave.
“Even though he was only 16, the war quickly turned him into an adult”, she recounts as tears well up in her eyes. “He said he was ready to die to defend us”, his mother recalls.
Having joined the elite Third Assault Brigade, he received a month-long training in Spain. “He could have stayed longer yet wanted to help his comrades in Ukraine”, his mother explains.
Several days later, his unit was rushed to save Ukrainian units from encirclement in Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region. A fragment of a drone bomb killed him on the spot by piercing his eye.
“Be strong. I was lucky to have had you as a mother”, said a short message the family later found in his phone, his mother recalls.
A matter of justice Many of Bogdan’s fellow soldiers have since died. Those who keep fighting, like his godfather, maintain they have no other choice but to continue the defence against Russia’s continued aggression.
Natalia believes Ukraine can retake the lost territories, calling it a question of justice. She doesn’t trust that Russia would stick to any deal and doesn’t want her son’s sacrifice to be in vain.
“If only our foreign partners gave us more weapons and not only promised them”, she notes bitterly.
“If we give up Donbas, then what has Ruslan and my other sons fought for?”, 66-year-old Yaroslav Skalskyi also notes.
Skalskyi, a veteran himself, came to light candles on the grave of his youngest son, who died in the attempt to slow down Russian advances in the south in the early months of invasion.
For Skalskyi, whose two other sons remain in the army, submitting to Russian demands is out of the question. “There are many Ukrainians in Donbas. We cannot abandon them,” he emphasizes. EFE
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