Holding smoking incense sticks and singing hymns, a group of Buddhist monks sat in front of the open coffins of four Russian soldiers killed fighting in Ukraine as hundreds of mourners gathered on Monday at a local sports centre in Ulan-Ude, the capital of the remote Buryatia region in Russia’s far east.
“We are distraught. This bloodshed needs to stop. Our boys are dying,” said Olga Odoeva, the sister-in-law of Bulat Odoev, one of the four soldiers being buried.
