HROZA, Ukraine, Oct 6 (Portal) – At a gravesite next to a field outside the remote Ukrainian hamlet of Hroza, residents cleared undergrowth and cleared away trash to make way for more graves.
The quiet work distracted her from the horror that had transpired the day before.
As dozens of people gathered at a local cafe for a meal to honor a soldier killed in the war against Russia, a rocket struck, killing at least 52 people.
It was one of the deadliest attacks during 20 months of fighting and one that has devastated the small, tight-knit community.
Shock gives way to sadness and questions about how the Russians could have known about the gathering, which some Hroza residents say was a premeditated attack.
Among those killed was Olya, 36, who leaves behind three children. Her husband also died.
Her father, Valeriy Kozyr, was at the cemetery preparing to bury her and his son-in-law.
“It would have been better if I had died,” he said quietly, crying. “Oh God, you can’t punish me like that. Leave the father and take the children!”
The 61-year-old wiped tears from his face and explained that he now has to figure out how to care for his three grandchildren, ages 10, 15 and 17. Kozyr wants to bury Olya and her husband side by side in a single grave.
He told Portal that he was not at the cafe on Thursday because he was working night shifts as a security guard and was therefore spared.
Nearby, three brothers prepared a gravesite for the burial of their parents, both killed in what President Volodymyr Zelensky called a deliberate Russian attack on civilians.
Moscow denies targeting civilians in its all-out invasion, a position it reiterated on Friday in response to the Hroza attack. Thousands were killed in a bombing that hit apartment blocks and restaurants as well as power plants, bridges and grain silos.
One brother started digging while another picked up discarded plastic bottles.
“We lost 18 people on a street where our parents lived,” said the third, 41-year-old Yevhen Pyrozhok. “On one side the neighbors are gone and on the other side a woman is gone.”
The men said they did not know when they would be able to carry out the funeral because their parents’ bodies were still being examined by investigators in Kharkiv, the nearest major city in northeastern Ukraine.
Valeriy Kozyr, 61, cries as he sits next to graves after losing his daughter and other relatives in a Russian military attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, at a cemetery outside the village of Hroza, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, March 6. October 2023. Portal /Thomas Peter acquires license rights
Not all victims have been identified. Regional police investigator Serhiy Bolvinov told reporters late Thursday that authorities needed to use DNA to identify some of the victims because their remains were unrecognizable.
“There were dead bodies lying there in that yard and no one could identify them,” said Valentyna Kozienko, 73, near her home near the construction site.
“Half the village is gone”
As darkness fell on Thursday, emergency workers carried dazed bodies in white bags into the back of a pickup truck. A local man knelt and cried as he placed his hand on the remains of a loved one before they too were taken away.
Local resident Oleksandr Mukhovatyi said he lost his mother, brother and sister-in-law.
“Someone betrayed us. The attack was precise, everything ended up in the cafe.”
On Friday, rescue workers continued to search through the rubble of the leveled cafe and nearby store as excavators pushed away debris.
On a low table set a few meters away, members of the emergency services and local community laid flowers and lit candles in small colored glasses to remember the dead.
One grave stands out in the cemetery.
Freshly dug earth is piled beneath bright blue and yellow bouquets of flowers that match the colors of a large Ukrainian flag fluttering in the wind overhead.
This is the final resting place of Andriy Kozyr, a soldier in the Ukrainian army and a distant relative of newly grieving father Valeriy.
Andriy had previously been killed in the conflict, but his family wanted to bury him in his home village when they discovered his remains in an area that had been occupied by the Russians before they withdrew in late 2022.
Just as friends and relatives gathered locally to celebrate his life, the rocket landed.
“Half the village is gone, the families are gone,” said Kozyr, standing next to his weeping wife. “They miss all the time. Well, this time they score.”
“Now I have to cross out half my phone book.”
Writing by Mike Collett-White; Edited by Philippa Fletcher
Our standards: The Thomson Portal Trust Principles.
Acquire license rights, opens new tab