Ukrainians are grieving. Civilians die in Russian shelling and missile attacks daily. Most of the casualties are young soldiers who represented Ukraine’s future.
Roman Ratushnyi returned to Kyiv for a few days in May to say goodbye to his friend from the front line, a soldier with the call sign Achilles who had been killed when a Russian tank opened fire. They had served together near Russian-occupied Izyum, and while Ratushnyi had become accustomed to death and loss by this point in Russia’s war against Ukraine, his mother could sense this time was different.“I know my child,” she said. “I know what sort of a cry from the heart it was.
“He didn’t belong there,” Vasyl said of his brother, two years younger. “We would need him very much in peacetime. But it turns out like this.”Roman woke his mother on the morning of Feb. 24. It was still dark. As she groggily squinted up at her son, she realized he was already dressed.“I didn’t understand anything,” she said.
Roman’s generation had its own revolution on Maidan nearly 10 years later. He was one of the student protesters beaten by riot police in the first days of the pro-western demonstration. He was just 16 and joined the protests for months, occasionally lying to his parents about where he was so they wouldn’t worry.
Over the years, he had often considered enlisting in the military. But instead he focused on a different kind of fight in his own community, protecting the neighborhood’s green space from development. Outside his apartment building, Roman created a memorial with a Ukrainian flag for the men and women who died defending Ukraine from Russian aggression.Povalyaeva walked past it recently and noticed someone had placed candles around it, along with a picture of her son.
Though Roman had little combat experience, he became a scout with a reconnaissance unit — one of the most dangerous jobs in the armed forces because it requires getting close to the enemy. “In this sense, we won’t win the victory,” said Lt. Oleksandr Sosovskyy, Roman’s deputy battalion commander. “Because even a single death is awful.”
Cherepnya eventually remembered Roman’s instructions — to collect his things and give them to his brother. By his bed, Roman had left a handwritten verse — “Patagonia” by Ukrainian poet Mykhaylo Semenko:On a note with the poem, Roman had written: “Do not rush after me.” As the procession moved into the cemetery, the wail of an air-raid siren started. The casket was lowered into the ground, and Bob tossed a single yellow flower onto it. Ruslan stood to the side, his expression pained.Even before Roman’s body had been recovered, rumors of his death started to spread on social media.
To retrieve Roman’s body, his commander, Bob, waited four days for a heavy thunderstorm that made him harder to detect. Worried that the Russians might have booby-trapped the corpse, Bob carefully moved it with a rope until he was sure it was safe, then carried Roman back to base.
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