Kharkiv’s cemetery and Ukraine’s counter-offensive

Vitaly Lenets, 61 yrs, a former grave digger who now looks after the graveyards at Kharkiv Cemetery Credit: Heathcliff O’Malley

One only needs to visit Kharkiv’s cemetery to get a true sense of the losses inflicted upon Ukraine By Heathcliff O’Malley On the southern outskirts of Ukraine’s second city Kharkiv, not far from the now closed airport on a main highway, sits Cemetery no18. One only needs to visit a site like this to get a true sense of the losses inflicted upon Ukraine’s brave fighting men and women in this truly terrifying modern conflict on western Europe’s border. In one corner, away from the main entrance, lies the military section which has seen immense expansion since February 2022 and the escalation of Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine. Prior to the invasion there were several rows of polished granite headstones etched, as is the fashion, with a photographic likeness of each soldier. They had given their lives in battles with Russian backed Separatists since 2014 in the eastern Donbas region in which just over 14,000 have died up until 2022. It’s a typical late spring afternoon in Kharkiv. The intense sunshine tempered by a gentle breeze which makes the sea of flags that rise above the hundreds of more recent graves flutter gently in a riot of blue and yellow echoing the fields of rapeseed and sunflower that are a staple of Ukrainian agriculture. Graves of fallen soldiers at the military section of a cemetery in Kharkiv Credit: Heathcliff O’Malley The vast majority of these graves are marked by a simple wooden cross with an inscription and a photograph hung by a relative and perhaps some rosary beads, all are adorned either with brightly coloured wreathes or a vase of simple flowers. More than 40,000 women serve in Ukraine’s military and their sacrifice is also evident, although frontline service is discouraged many do and have paid the ultimate price but like the male comrades the Government remain tight lipped about casualty figures since 2022. According to an assessment collated by the US Defence Intelligence Agency, Ukraine has suffered as many as 24,500-131,000 total casualties, including 15,500-17,500 killed in action up until April of this year, Russian numbers are far higher. Vitaly Lenets, a 61 year old former grave digger, now tends to the graveyards at Kharkiv Cemetery no18 , his body now more than likely too worn for more demanding tasks. When I asked to take his photo he insisted on being photographed by the grave of Maxim Sherbak, a young soldier in his twenties with whom he made friends during the early days of the invasion when he was based nearby. Maxim later died on the front near Kupiansk. The sense of grief in Vitaly’s demeanour is still palpable. Such is the tragedy of the war in Ukraine.

In Russia right now, you wouldn’t think there is much need to worry, but Ukraine tells a different story

By Nataliya Vasilyeva RUSSIA CORRESPONDENT

Ukraine’s counter-offensive is officially on. But, if you were in Russia right now, you wouldn’t think that there is much need to worry. The Kremlin is busy denying whatever is happening on the front line rather than trying to push their own narrative of the war like they did a year ago. When a group of ragtag fighters crossed brazenly from Ukraine into southern Russia and started instagramming from there, Russian state TV pretended it wasn’t a big deal. Now, the Kremlin has to play down the importance of the raid while at least one village in Belgorod still remains in Ukrainian hands. In hindsight, the raid now looks like a prelude to Ukraine’s much-anticipated counter-offensive that seems to have kicked off on Monday. Kyiv has been so careful not to advertise the movement of its troops that it is left to Russian pro-war bloggers to report on the damage to Russian defences in several points of the front line. “Russian troops have stopped a Ukrainian offensive south of Donetsk,” a newsreader on NTV said on Tuesday as the channel ran the story under the headline “The enemy is not going to pass”. Komsomolskaya Pravda, Russia’s best-selling tabloid, has been complaining to its readers about the insidious Nato plotting to overthrow Russia while playing down the importance of what appears to be a busy day on the front line. The Ukrainian army has “failed to penetrate our defence and started to crawl back,” Komsomolskaya Pravda said as they put the word “offensive” in question marks. On Telegram, which remains free of censorship in Russia, the mood is markedly different. Igor Strelkov, a former Ukrainian separatist commander, is raising the alarm about the potential collapse of Russian defence lines. “If the enemy manages to break through on a wide enough part of the front line,” he said. “That advantage will be very hard to repel.”

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Preceding

Russians saying now there is enough proof the West is attacking the Russian Federation

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict is spreading to Russian territory

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