The Sun Has Set Over Kyiv on the 1312th Day of the Full-Scale Invasion. Why Lviv Kneels for the Heroes – a report by Frontliner
by frontliner_ukraine
The Sun Has Set Over Kyiv on the 1312th Day of the Full-Scale Invasion. Why Lviv Kneels for the Heroes – a report by Frontliner
by frontliner_ukraine
3 comments
The memory of fallen soldiers is not limited to dates and slogans. It permeates the urban space and becomes part of everyday life. Each day, these gestures remind us that security comes at a price. Frontliner explores how the memory of fallen heroes lives on in Lviv.
Part 2: Burial of Heroes. Part 1, The Minute of Silence, can be found
[https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1nragxt/the_sun_has_set_over_kyiv_on_the_1311th_day_of/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ukraine/comments/1nragxt/the_sun_has_set_over_kyiv_on_the_1311th_day_of/)
**Why Do People in the Streets Kneel?**
The service for Ruslan Chikel and Oleh Volskyi takes place at the Garrison Church of Saints Peter and Paul. Just as during the morning’s Minute of Silence, the city’s central square falls still as the funeral procession slowly moves away from the church.
>“We meet our heroes on our knees, as a sign of gratitude for giving their lives for Ukraine. By their example, by their lives, these soldiers have shown us what it means to love. To love completely, sacrificing their health, time, resources, and even their lives,” says Chaplain Nestor Kyzyk, who will be seeing off the soldiers today.
City authorities are organizing the burial process. The Church is trying to ease this burden for the families by handling the arrangements themselves.
The silence now is different from that of the Minute of Silence: the trumpeter of the Lviv Town Hall plays “The Silence” by Nini Rosso. Passersby drop to their knees. The music rises, then the melody fades away. Just a few seconds after the procession’s buses turn the corner, the city center resumes its daily rhythm. Yet further along the road to the Field of Mars, citizens stop and kneel.
*[Editor’s note: The Field of Mars, Марсовe полe, in Ukrainian, is a section of Lviv’s Lychakiv Cemetery dedicated to the graves of Ukrainian fallen soldiers.]*
It is hot and bright at the cemetery. The military band plays with force, briefly unsettling the stillness that hangs over the place. Flags form a yellow-blue-black-red sea, and today two more will be added – the burials of Ruslan Chikel and Oleh Volskyi, residents of Lviv who were killed on the front. Here, the national anthem sounds solemn and mournful; in the commands of the military escorts, one can see the weariness – they perform these rituals almost every day, but without diminishing the gravity of the ceremony.
The families of the fallen are presented with the national flags and the Brigade flags, while the hot air ripples from the salutes of the honor guard. It feels as if the funeral lasts an eternity, yet it also seems too brief to say farewell to a human life.
[https://frontliner.ua/en/lviv-honors-fallen-heroes/](https://frontliner.ua/en/lviv-honors-fallen-heroes/)
GLORY TO UKRAINE!
GOD WILL REWARD YOU FOR YOUR SUFFERING.
I truly enjoy learning more about Ukraine every day these past few years. And I appreciate the Sunset posts. But I confess that I miss the Sunrise posts because where I am, it is late. And I used to check every night, that people I look forward to hearing from, had made it through another night. An other post here this evening, states that Ukraine is being hit very hard right now and loud explosions have been heard in Kyiv. I wish NATO would stop stalling and just jump in already!
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