Frontline cemeteries shut to Ukrainians for Easter over dangerous war debris

By Viktoriia Lakezina and Vitalii Hnidyi

KOBZARTSI, Ukraine (Reuters) – Hundreds of cemeteries near front lines will be closed to Ukrainians wanting to pay their respects at graves of their relatives for Orthodox Easter this weekend, as officials fear the danger of land mines and unexploded ordnance.

But in the formerly Russian-occupied village of Kobzartsi in the southwest Mykolaiv region, residents say they are hugely grateful that demining officers have been able to clear one of the two local cemeteries of hazards to allow them to visit.

“Thank God that (deminers) came through here. We will visit (the cemetery) as usual, and we will celebrate Easter. Thank God we are alive, this is most important,” said Olena Yarova, a 46-year-old villager.

Many Ukrainians visit the graves of their loved ones around Easter to pay their respects and tidy up the graves.

Only 42 people remain in Kobzartsi out of 1,200 who lived there before Russia invaded in February 2022. Fighting has littered Ukraine with an appalling amount of dangerous war detritus.

The head of the demining unit in Kobzartsi said they had found munitions and debris on the ground.

“If it goes off nearby, there is a 100% possibility of shrapnel wounds. In 90% of such cases a person dies after being hit with such munitions,” said Vladyslav Hrytsai, the officer.

The second cemetery was not demined and 74-year-old Lidiia Osypenko said: “We will go only after the deminers. We will not go without them. It is dangerous to go just like this.”

The village was liberated after months of occupation in November when Ukrainian forces recaptured a swathe of the Kherson region, which was taken shortly after the start of Russia’s invasion.

The governor of Kherson region, tracts of which remain occupied, has declared a ban on cemetery visits for Easter this year. In the northeastern Kharkiv region, back in Ukrainian hands after a partial Russian occupation, 753 cemeteries have been closed.

(Reporting by Viktoriia Lakezina in Kobzartsi and Vitalii Hnidyi in Kharkiv; Writing by Tom Balmforth; editing by Mark Heinrich)