On the morning of Day 142 of the war in Ukraine, the mayor of a community slipping closer to the front line stands in sneakers and blazer near the newest soldier’s grave.
Aside from the gravedigger, Ruslan Trebushkin is the last to toss dirt on the casket, which had been closed. He worries how much of the body was left, how much the war took away. This is his 10th military funeral since Russia’s invasion in February. Funerals were televised to give the soldiers recognition until the recruitment office and families asked to stop it “for humanity reasons,” he says. It had become too much.
