A Ukrainian soldier in a mass grave in the hills above the city of Lysychansk in eastern Ukraine on Thursday. Credit … Tyler Hicks / The New York Times
LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine – A mass grave on the edge of this eastern Ukrainian city remains uncovered. Earth mounds and yellow petal weeds surround a well filled with a dozen bags of corpses. They stink of death in the warm summer wind.
The dead are civilians who have died in bombings in recent months in the cities of Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk and the nearby town of Rubizhne. They are crowded because there are no relatives to claim and bury their bodies.
Standing on the Tomb, Pvt. Sergiy Veklenko, 41, explained why the bodies were still exposed: “All our machinery that we had in the city’s inventory – excavators and everything – was donated to the army to dig trenches.”
As the war reaches its fourth month and the Ukrainian and Russian casualties add up to thousands of deaths, it is clear that the trenches have also become graves for many soldiers.
Private Veklenko, a former police officer who joined the Ukrainian army when the war began, estimates that 300 people are buried in the mass grave. “We’ve been burying people here who have been dead since April,” he said.
The tomb is located near a row of hills that now houses the Ukrainian artillery positions that defend the city. Shells fired for much of Thursday morning.
The number of civilians killed in Lysychansk and Sievierodonetsk, two cities separated by the Siversky Donets River, is unknown. As Russia consolidates control in Sievierodonetsk and shifts its focus to neighboring Lysychansk, civilian casualties there are likely to increase, unless Ukrainian forces withdraw.
On Thursday, local officials said at least four people had been killed in a Russian airstrike in Lysychansk. The attack took place in the morning, but it took several hours for the news to be published on the official Telegram channels, highlighting the difficulty of communicating what is happening in the city.
Lysychansk, an industrial city with a pre-war population of 100,000, is largely isolated from the outside world, with no mobile phone service or electricity. Local officials estimate that 40,000 people remain in the city, although there is no way to know the exact number.
Lysychansk residents received help from a group of police officers and soldiers on Thursday. Credit … Tyler Hicks / The New York Times The Ukrainian military and police officers delivered supplies of food, including macaroni and oil, to civilians in Lysychansk. Credit … Tyler Hicks / The New York Times A Ukrainian soldier on Thursday tried to persuade a woman to evacuate her family. Credit … Tyler Hicks / The New York Times
Her reasons for staying include the need to care for older relatives and, in some cases, even the unwillingness to separate from pets.
“Everyone does not want to give up their home,” said a woman who left her home on Thursday to receive supplies from a group of police and soldiers. “And what about cats and dogs? What about the elderly? So we are sitting here. “
“You have to have a lot of money to evacuate, to pay the rent,” he continued, giving only his name, Luda. “And they don’t allow pets on rental flats. I have two dogs and two cats, how can I leave them? That’s not an option, crying after them. “
Two people in his neighborhood were killed in a bombing about a week ago, he said. They were buried in a nearby patch of forest, with their graves marked with a cluster of withered flowers.
In Sievierodonetsk, some 500 civilians have taken refuge in a large chemical plant while fighting in parts of the city where Ukrainian forces still have control. Officials estimate that 10,000 civilians remain.
Since the destruction of three bridges connecting the two cities, Ukrainian forces in Sievierodonetsk have not had easy escape routes. On Thursday, it was reported that Ukrainian troops who could cross the river were beginning to withdraw to defend Lysychansk, which is on higher ground.
For troops and civilians in Lysychansk, there is a question: what comes next?
A group of Ukrainian soldiers sheltered in the basement of an apartment complex expressed hope that the advanced rocket systems promised by the United States would arrive soon. The longer range of the rockets would allow them to hit Russian artillery positions. But until the weapons arrive, the soldiers said, Russian artillery will be relentless.
“An hour seems like a whole day,” one soldier said.
A resident in a shelter under an apartment building in Lysychansk on Thursday. Credit … Tyler Hicks / The New York Times
– Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Natalia Yermak