Residents of some Ukrainian cities and towns have been forced to bury their dead in makeshift mass graves as a result of heavy Russian bombings – many of the victims have not been identified.
“We [the victims] cannot be buried in private graves, they are outside the city and those areas are controlled by Russian forces,” Seriy Orlov, deputy mayor of Mariupol, told the BBC.
For nearly two weeks, the strategic port city of Mariupol was hit daily by Russian rockets and shells. Thousands of homeless people are hiding in cellars with food and water shortages.
A local councilor has said that 67 bodies have been buried in a ditch in Bucha, a suburb of Kyiv, which was captured by the Russians. A video of a doctor being buried was posted on Facebook.
Chernivtsi, which was besieged by Russia in the north, also uses a makeshift cemetery.
The informal burial is a shock to Ukrainians who look forward to Christian rituals and have bitter memories of the Holocaust of World War II.
