From the Graveside to the Front, Ukrainians Tell of Grim Endurance

Nearly 600 graves stretch to the edges of the military cemetery outside the city of Dnipro, marked by ranks of yellow and blue Ukrainian flags snapping in the wind.

The graves represent just a small percentage of the thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have died in eight years of war since Russia first began to annex parts of their country in 2014, but the rapid expansion of this graveyard in eastern Ukraine is telling.

Almost half the graves are fresh. Draped in wreaths of artificial flowers or marked with a wooden cross stuck in the bare mud, they belong to soldiers killed in the last three months, since Russia began its large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The number of Ukrainian casualties remains a closely guarded secret. The media-conscious government of President Volodymyr Zelensky has carefully controlled the flow of information in an apparent attempt to keep public morale high. Read more

@nytimes