The funeral procession began at midday. Four coffins were taken out of a cottage and loaded into the back of two white vans. The vehicles trundled along a dirt track. Mourners followed, 30 of them, a few clutching carnations. They walked past a grassy football pitch and a pair of chained-up goats before turning right along an avenue of poplars.
Their destination was the village cemetery in Hroza, a community of 300 people in the rustic north-east of Ukraine. Once, the cemetery was small. Over the past few days it had grown as gravediggers chopped down trees and dug fresh plots. They were still working as the cortege arrived, led by a priest, under a flawless blue sky.
