Funeral service for a collector of battlefield bodies
People kneeled down and tossed roses in front of the van as it slowly squeaked by them against the background of muffled booms from the frontlines to the south and east.
The crying then started when the back door opened and a wooden coffin was brought out.
Ludmilla Sosnenko sobbed while comforting her daughter in her arms.
In recent months there have been numerous untimely and unexpected burials.
Alexey Yukov, the local head of Black Tulip, addressed the audience and stated Denys there are many angels.
Last week, Sosnenko passed away when the van he was driving — a van strikingly similar to the one that brought his body into the town square — collided with an anti-tank mine close to the frontlines.
He frequently declared, “This is my mission; I must complete this.” Although it was risky employment, he would tell us that we were guarding the dead’s souls, as his mother Ludmilla had claimed. He was constantly upbeat and had ambitious goals for the future.
The BBC repeatedly filmed Sosnenko and his colleagues in action last year.
Ukrainian body collectors
He described the horrors of the job of picking up bodies piece by piece and the constant dangers they faced, including not only the war raging all around them but also the boobytraps frequently allegedly laid by Russian troops who were fleeing. Drones and other tools are frequently used by the team to look for explosives.
However, Sosnenko and his coworkers also spoke vehemently about the significance of their work.
Numerous Russian soldiers’ bodies that they’ve gathered over the previous 11 months have been traded across the frontlines for those of missing Ukrainian service members.
Speaking in a snow-covered cemetery outside of Slovyansk following Sosnenko’s funeral, Mr. Semeyko argued that nothing had changed.
Mr. Semeyko remarked, “We are happy we were able to bury him with honour. He accomplished so much in his brief life, but we still need to work hard to bring more people back.
Mr. Yukov concurred saying We’ll get back to work as soon as possible.
