The mourners prayed and sang during Artemiy Dimid’s funeral at Lichakov Cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, on Tuesday. Mr Dimid was killed in battle while serving in the Ukrainian Marines’ Special Operations Unit. Credit … Emil Duck for The New York Times Mr. Dimid’s coffin was taken from the garrison church of St. Peter and Paul on the streets of the main market square of Lviv and then to the cemetery. Such funeral processions have become commonplace in western Ukrainian cities. Credit … Emil Duck for The New York Times Mr. Dimid’s funeral was one of four military funerals to be held in Lviv on Tuesday. Three of the four buried soldiers did not live to be 30, including 27-year-old Dimid. Credit … Emil Duck for The New York Times
LVIV, Ukraine – Artemiy Dimid’s closest friends unfurled his parachute and stretched it gently over his grave. The red, silk fabric wrapped around his coffin as they lowered it.
The men, many soldiers, covered the freshly dug hole with earth. The first shovels fell with a thud.
The funeral of Mr Dymyd, a Marine killed in action, was the first funeral of the day in Lviv, a western city in Ukraine, where residents saw a relentless influx of their sons killed in the war with Russia. By the end of Tuesday, three other freshly excavated graves near Mr Dimid’s grave would also be filled with young soldiers killed in the battle for the east of the country, hundreds of miles away.
The funeral began in the Greek Catholic Church, an eastern branch of Catholicism that is widespread in Lviv. Mr. Dymyd’s father, a priest, delivered his eulogy. And then his mother, her voice full of emotion, sang the last lullaby for her son.
The procession then made a very familiar journey from the church to the city’s main market square, where dozens of young men in scout uniforms formed an honor guard. Mr Dimid, 27, has been part of Ukraine’s scout organization since he was 7 years old. Young children, teenagers and adults from the group were there to say goodbye.
At the bottom of the square, four white placards announced the details of the military funeral to be held in the city on Tuesday, all for men killed in the battle for the east in recent weeks. Three of them never celebrated their 30th birthday.
Tram passengers in downtown Lviv, Ukraine, watched in silence as Artemiy Dimid’s funeral procession passed on its way to Lichakov Cemetery. Credit … Emil Duck for The New York Times
A young woman wearing the distinctive green Scout scarf closed her eyes, took a sharp breath, and clenched her fists to keep from tears until she joined the slow procession for Mr. Dimid.
Scouting was only part of his life. Mr. Dimid also loved traveling and adventure and extreme sports such as skydiving. His nickname was Kurka, which means chicken. Friends said Metallica’s music would be more appropriate for his funeral than the military chants that are now played daily at Lichakov Cemetery in Lviv.
“He is one of the most worthy men I have ever met,” said Dmitry Pashchuk, 26. He has lived many lives in his 27 years. People are writing books about characters like him, and maybe there will be books soon. ”
Mr. Pashchuk, who ran a wine bar before the war, served with Mr. Dimid in the Special Operations Department of the Ukrainian Marines. They had become brothers in the last few months, he said.
On the night of the attack, which ended his friend’s life, Mr Pashchuk said, he woke up to the sound of an explosion and soon realized something was wrong. He immediately called Mr. Dimid and saw that another friend was giving him first aid. When he saw Mr. Dimid’s eyes, he knew it was bad.
“I was afraid to be next to him,” he said slowly. “Because when I saw him, I felt he wasn’t going to make it.”
Mr. Dimid died a little later.
Mr Pashchuk said he had mixed feelings about returning to the front line in a few days. He described waves of emotion, but said he was not angry or vindictive.
“I don’t feel like I want to kill everyone because it happened,” Mr Pashchuk said. “Thanks to Kurka. He taught me to stay calm. “
Roman Lozinski, a colleague of the Marines, had been a friend of Mr. Dimid’s for two decades after meeting him when they were young scouts. Mr Lozinski, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, volunteered for the army three months ago and served in the same unit as Mr Dimid and Mr Pashchuk.
He described his lifelong friend as a “crazy man” with a thirst for life who had returned to Ukraine from a parachute trip to Brazil to enlist when the war began. Mr Dymyd wanted to continue parachuting during the war and finally had a chance last month as part of a mission, his friends said.
Mr Dymyd’s brother, Dmitry Dymyd, is the one who plans to put the parachute in his grave, Mr Lozynskyi said, as a sign of Mr Dymyd’s passion for parachuting. The brother, who is also a soldier, was allowed to attend the funeral, but will return to the Donetsk region in a few days.
As the mourners slowly made their way out of the cemetery, the gravediggers piled the ground on Mr. Dimid’s grave to a solid mound.
There were three left.
Young men and women in scout uniforms mourned Mr Dimid, who has been part of the Scout Organization of Ukraine since the age of seven. Credit … Emil Duck for the New York Times
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