VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia – Russian families buried relatives killed in Ukraine with automatic gun salutes and military brass bands on Friday, a day after the Kremlin first admitted it had lost a significant number of troops.
Russia sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on February 24 in what it calls a “special operation.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday the casualties were “a huge tragedy for us.”
In the southern garrison town of Vladikavkaz, near the Caucasus Mountains, relatives gathered for the funeral of Vitaly Dyadyushko, one of two soldiers buried at the city’s Vostochnoe Cemetery on Friday.
A weeping woman dressed in black kissed the face of the soldier who lay in an open coffin, flanked by soldiers in dress uniform with rifles. A Russian Orthodox priest waved incense over the coffin.
Dyadyushko, from the nearby settlement of Arkhonskaya, left behind four sisters and a mother, local leader Alexander Kusey said.
“He came from a big family and he was the only one who made sure of that. I don’t know how the girls will do without him now, he helped a lot,” he said. “He wasn’t married, he didn’t have a chance, he was young, very young. It’s a shame when young people die before their time.”
As the coffin was lowered into the ground, a military marching band played the national anthem and an honor guard fired a salute from automatic weapons.
Shortly thereafter, mourners gathered for another funeral, that of 41-year-old Ruslan Kozayev. An elderly woman gently touched his face in tears.
Elsewhere in the cemetery, more than 20 fresh graves for soldiers who died in Ukraine could be seen.
(Writing by Conor Humphries and David Ljunggren; Editing by Daniel Wallis)