Three gunshots rang out as an honor guard fired into the air over the snow-covered cemetery. Troopers lifted a Ukrainian flag from a coffin and handed it to relations. Then a trumpet, accompanied by a drum, bid farewell to the fallen soldier.
After enjoying a Ukrainian model of taps, the 2 musicians from the navy band walked slowly away, leaving the mourners to grieve.
“Sadly, we can’t elevate them from their graves, however we will play faucets,” Maj. Oleksandr Holub stated of the day by day visits that members of the band he conducts make to the cemetery, the place a whole bunch of latest graves have been dug for Ukrainian troopers.
Over the three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion started, Ukraine has skilled great losses. In an interview revealed final month, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that no less than 46,000 Ukrainian troopers had been killed within the battle and that greater than 350,000 had been wounded, figures which are extensively seen as underestimates.
For the previous 12 months, the Russian Military has been on the offensive, capturing Ukrainian territory frequently and killing Ukrainian troopers in rising numbers.
Then comes the work of the band of the a hundred and first Separate Guard Brigade of the Common Employees.
“We deal with each funeral prefer it’s our most vital live performance, as we’re saying farewell to these due to whom we’re nonetheless right here,” stated Pvt. Lev Remenev, a song writer in civilian life who volunteered to combat within the military however as an alternative wound up within the a hundred and first Separate Guard band, the place he performs the piano.
The mission of the band’s 21 members is to indicate two sides of Ukraine’s battle three years into the battle: acknowledging the insufferable toll and maintaining the spirits of those that press forward with the preventing.
They assist troopers and civilians by enjoying uplifting concert events in faculties and at universities and rehabilitation facilities. However the tune they play most incessantly is a model of faucets, to honor their fallen comrades.
The musicians say it’s typically tough to transition to the cheerful temper of a live performance for schoolchildren or for troopers in hospitals proper after enjoying at a funeral.
“In case you didn’t handle to modify, and go on being grim, children really feel it,” stated Main Holub, 45, the conductor, who has been with the band for 18 years. “Youngsters are the best viewers, and it is vitally straightforward to get them to have enjoyable,” he stated. “Troopers are the toughest.”
However for the musicians, funerals are the toughest.
They performed a model of faucets at funerals earlier than the battle, too, however largely for retired troopers who died of previous age, Main Holub stated. It grew to become tougher in 2014, when Russia invaded the Donbas region of jap Ukraine and troopers had been killed in battle. It has change into a lot tougher for the reason that full-scale invasion, he stated.
He recollects the funeral that affected him probably the most: “I’ll at all times keep in mind a younger boy referred to as Andriy, from our brigade,” he stated. “He needed us to play at his wedding ceremony, and in summer season 2023, we performed at his wedding ceremony. After which a 12 months later, in summer season 2024, we performed at his funeral.”
He added: “I’ll say actually that after I see moms burying their sons, I’ve tears arising — it is vitally arduous.”
Personal Remenev joined the military in 2022 and was despatched to the Donbas area to combat. That July, he was assigned to hitch the band.
He nonetheless writes songs and his comrades have requested him to put in writing an anthem to rejoice victory, he stated. “This can be a very excessive bar,” Personal Remenev stated of the expectations for an anthem, including that he had but to supply one.
“The primary factor is for the victory to truly come, after which I’ll write higher regular songs,” he stated. “Individuals don’t take heed to anthems; folks like regular songs.”
Since becoming a member of the military, he has performed greater than 200 concert events in hospitals and faculties and at different occasions. However just like the others within the band, he has performed at much more funerals.
“I at all times really feel gratitude initially, after which the grief, after which the ache that girls and boys are dying — that our nation is dying,” he stated.
He, like his colleagues, says it’s arduous to be in good spirits after the funerals. At concert events, they should elevate morale. “We are not any completely different from all the nation on this,” he stated. “All individuals who dwell in battle need to pressure themselves to modify to a false good temper. This capacity comes with observe.”
Typically, the navy band members chat on the bus to the cemetery, giving each other ethical assist. Typically, they are saying, it’s simply too unhappy, and so they drive in silence.
Pvt. Oleksiy Prykhodko, 29, has been performing within the band for 5 years, however he solely began enjoying frequently at funerals after the full-scale invasion in 2022. “It’s potential to adapt to every thing,” he stated. “However it is vitally arduous to see the tears of kin who misplaced their family members.”
The primary funeral he performed at caught in his reminiscence. “We went to the cemetery, however there have been no kin,” he stated. “It was the very starting of the battle, and the mom of the fallen soldier had evacuated and couldn’t make it again in time.” She had fled and was a refugee. “One lady referred to as her,” he stated. “And he or she was saying goodbye to her lifeless son over the cellphone.”
He added: “I’ve no solutions as to how you can cope, however in some way I am going on.”
Each morning, he goes out to a parade floor on the base in Kyiv, the capital, at 9 a.m. together with his trumpet and performs a model of faucets for troopers on the base. Most days, he performs the music once more at a funeral, he stated.
On one such day in December, there was an influence minimize from Russian missile assaults on energy vegetation in the midst of a funeral, he stated. The church went darkish, and mourners had been requested to modify on the flashlight on their telephones to seek out the coffin contained in the darkish room and bid farewell to the fallen soldier.
Then Personal Prykhodko performed a model of faucets.
“Family by no means say something to us — they don’t take into consideration us at that second,” he stated. “When their liked one dies, we’re the very last thing on their minds, however we nonetheless come and play faucets,” he stated. “It’s a ritual, and it’s important.”
Yurii Shyvala contributed reporting.
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