Zohra Besemra and Joseph Campbell

TROSTYANETS (Ukraine) (Reuters) – The gate’s handmade sign warns that “The cemetery has been mined.” Danger.” Residents of Trostyanets, a former occupied city in northern Ukraine, still visit the graves of their family members who were killed during the conflict.

According to Olena Matvienko, the cemetery manager in Sumy said that only a small portion of this graveyard has been made secure since Russian troops planted mines in it as they pulled back in April.

“Demining teams arrived later, and only partially de-mined it,” Matvienko said. Matvienko stated that they couldn’t get further in, while standing at the graveyard where many gravestones had been shattered and were riddled by bullet holes.

She stated that certain areas still posed a danger to people.

So, even so, mourners were gathered at different graves with some holding bouquets of spring flowers.

Natalia Evdokimova (46), was one of the people who ignored warnings. They were going to the gravesite of Dmytro (a Ukrainian soldier killed at the northeastern frontier on March 29th) and they visited her husband. Russian troops had already left this area.

She stated that her son fighting in the Kharkiv area near Izyum had worried most about his parents’ fate under Russian occupation.

“‘Mom, leave, it will be too dangerous in Trostyanets,’” Evdokimova recalled him saying, tears spilling down her cheeks. He went to Izyum, where he died. There he died.”

The grave was covered in flowers. Her husband sat silently. Evdokimova reached her arms towards the grave marker and held it.

Russia claims that its troops have not killed civilians since the February 24th invasion and committed war crimes in Ukraine’s occupied territories. Reuters was unable to independently confirm casualty figures or account of deaths in Trostyanets.

According to the cemetery manager, 20 more people were buried there recently. These had been added while Trostyanets occupied it.

Reuters was told by Mayor Yuri Bova that 50 or more people were killed or injured while Russian forces ruled the city, which at one time had a population of approximately 20,000.

Some were shot in the head, others were found tied and their eyes taped. “We found people in villages that had been shot in their heads,” he stated.