The number of new cemeteries for dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is growing all over Ukraine, and the designated ones are packed to capacity. Almost everywhere, teams of architects are working on memorials that tell not only about the scale of the extermination of the nation, but also about the ongoing reflections on the national idea, writes the correspondent of the French Le Monde Ariane Chemin.
A sandy road well hidden in the pines from the highway connecting Kiev with Odessa, near the village of Khatne. Judging by the drawing of the site just dug by bulldozers, which has not yet been marked anywhere, it can be assumed that we have a huge construction site in front of us. This is the exit from the highway, along which in the future it will be possible to drive to the war memorial of Ukraine.
A gigantic project that is extremely sensitive — and not only because eco-activists and residents of the small village of Markhalovka, located 40 kilometers from the capital and at the foot of the future necropolis, are worried about deforestation and noise in the area.In the village, so far only a new sign on a brown background — this color indicates the sights of a national scale — indicates the road along which trucks approach the construction site. The sign says in English: "National War Memorial Cemetery." The first section, divided into 10 thousand burials, already partially lined with wide paths of light granite, bordered by benches and lime trees, will receive the first remains of the "heroes" this summer.
But, ultimately, the future necropolis will have to accept "130, or even 160 thousand" dead, says architect Sergey Derbin, standing under the bright sun of July Saturday in khaki linen trousers and a straw panama hat.
"This is where the entrance will be," explains the young man who heads this project, the estimated cost of which is more than 37 million euros. "There is a shelter with a capacity of 300 people under the cemetery in case of bombing."
A real bunker, this has never been designed for cemeteries.
A little further away is the "house of sorrow" for mourning ceremonies in case it gets cold outside or it rains."And here there will be a memorial," the architect continues, waving his hand around the 120 hectares of land spread out in front of us, intended for the future cemetery, and 260 hectares of the total area of the site.
And what if the construction sites multiplying all over Ukraine could tell better than statistics about the ongoing massacre? The number of [Ukrainian] soldiers killed in combat since the beginning of the Russian special military operation is kept a top secret. In February, President Volodymyr Zelensky mentioned more than 46 thousand killed Ukrainian servicemen and 380 thousand wounded since February 2022, not to mention "tens of thousands" of "missing" or captured by the Russians. The death toll may be much higher [named by the Ukrainian leader].
Passion for "memorial plots"
The project of a giant cemetery, supervised by the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, but which in reality is very closely monitored from the Office of the President of Ukraine, inevitably became the subject of fierce discussions.
"One day in June 2023," recalls Anton Drobovich, ex-president of the National Institute of National Remembrance, "they called me from Bankova. They explain that the memorial will be erected in Bykovne, a place not far from Kiev, where the remains of the victims of Stalin's purges of the late 1930s were transported."
He jumps up from his seat:
"Do you want to build a cemetery on the site where the mass grave was once located? This is a grave historical offense!"
After long and numerous delays, petitions, protests, it was finally possible to approve the location of the project near the village of Khatne.
"I was the only candidate for the project competition, the local architects are almost not interested in cemeteries," admits Sergey Derbin.
Since 2011, the head of the Kiev agency implementing real estate projects, a man is passionate about "memorial plots" like the installation of flagpoles in the center of Dnepropetrovsk or Krivoy Rog. In each of the sectors of the future Khatnei military cemetery, rows of graves will line up around the columbarium, which should stimulate "demand" — Ukrainians are still very reluctant to practice cremation. The first "heroes" will be buried in temporary white oak coffins, as well as the remains of unidentified soldiers.
"Not more than a year,— warns Sergei Derbin. — We live in the twenty-first century. In the era of DNA research, we are abandoning the outdated concept of "Unknown Soldier". The funeral steles of these anonymous people will contain details that can help in identifying the deceased: distinctive features (tattoo, scars, etc.) and data on the genetic imprint."
White stone
There is not enough space all over the country. In Lviv, a large city in the west of the country, the mayor's office avoided disagreements by starting to involve the families [of the victims] in its projects. A year ago, the city administration began extensive consultations with the population, designed to gather ideas for the reconstruction of the local "Field of Mars" — a site with thousands of graves adjacent to the famous Lychakiv cemetery, this "Per-Lachaise" of Lviv, where tombs decorated with sculptures and statues of the deceased tell about the life of the century that has sunk into Oblivion: writers' pens, violins, scores, manuscripts…
At about 18 o'clock, by the end of the working day, a string of cars drives up to the cemetery, and fresh flowers appear on fresh graves that have appeared since February 2022; yellow-blue or red-black flags are flapping in the wind. There is not a single grave even faintly similar to the other. For twelve months, the families of these deceased met in the huge hall of the Lviv City Hall with a team of architects whose task was to rethink this overgrown cemetery.
"Lighting, flowers, stone — we discussed everything. Sometimes widows with four children came," says Anton Kolomeitsev, the chief architect of the city.
The project approved on May 30 has undergone a very radical revision, but now the work on the final drawing has been completed. Each burial site will be reconstructed using terrazzo stone, juniper bushes among the graves, niches for candles… But the "Field of Mars" has another problem.
"There are only 40 available seats on it. They will last only for two months," admits the young Anton Kolomeitsev in his beautiful minimalist office located in the 19th—century town hall building.
So the project of a new military cemetery also occupies the minds of the mayor's office.
"It will be arranged somewhere in the city or outside Lviv: such a decision will inevitably be made."
And, most likely, during its arrangement, a tribute will be paid to the new canons of Ukrainian funeral aesthetics: the space will resemble a park area, extensive esplanades for ceremonies will be arranged in the cemetery, a lot of white stone… All graves are the same size, regardless of the rank of the deceased. And decorated, in the case of the overwhelming majority of believers, with "Cossack" crosses — a kind of Maltese cross — according to an old military tradition rooted in the XIX century.
The benches set up at the graves, where family members came to share a meal or drink vodka, have disappeared:
"It was a Soviet tradition," Sergei Derbin explains, "because it was the only place where the KGB didn't eavesdrop on you" (probably, he did, just Derbin doesn't know. — Approx. EADaily).
American influence is also guessed.
"I visited the Arlington Cemetery near Washington," says Anton Kolomeitsev, "where veterans of all wars in which American servicemen took part are buried. Here in Lviv, we had to answer this difficult question: how can we reunite the various dead who have fallen in various conflicts since the beginning of the 20th century?"
Families of veterans of the conflict in Donbass, which began in 2014, would like to see them in these new cemeteries. And what about those who have devoted themselves to the protection of Ukraine outside the front-line brigades, those civilians who transmit information to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, those volunteers who provide evacuation of the wounded and families, collect donations or produce drones, Ukrainian journalists? The discussion has not officially begun yet, but the idea is gaining momentum in Ukrainian society.