Early morning fog marked the beginning of a ceremony to scatter the ashes of a Ukrainian soldier, 23-year-old Kostiantyn Yuzviuk. His ashes were taken by volunteers to places that he loved but never had a chance to visit. One of them was Lithuania.
Kostiantyn gave his only press interview to LRT RADIO last year. When asked why he agreed to talk, he said he respected Lithuania for helping Ukraine.
At just 13, he joined the Euromaidan revolution in his hometown of Rivne in north-western Ukraine. He joined the military in 2023 after spending a year rescuing animals during the full-scale Russian invasion. He fought as a drone operator on the frontline but fell in the brutal war on July 18.
Asked in the interview in 2023 what victory would look like, he replied after a long pause: "It's hard to believe I will live to see it."
"Now we have huge losses – half of my team was killed. It could be me any day and that’s why I’m not thinking many years ahead," Kostiantyn told LRT RADIO. "If I am alive and there is a war, I will be in the army. If the war somehow ends, I will go into the public sector and work on the reconstruction of Ukraine, educating young people in previously occupied towns and villages."
"In my unit, I try to be as motivated as possible, to show that I have the strength, the energy to cheer up, to motivate both the fighters of my unit and my friends at home," he said. "I keep posting stories on Instagram so that people don't give up."
Hundreds of people turned out for his funeral in Rivne, where Kostintyn's will was read out – if you want to talk to me, he wrote, have a drink of my favourite Kvass Taras and create memes that I died because I was vegan.
Kostiantyn wanted his body to be cremated, writing in his last letter: "Another war will break out someday and it will be difficult for our soldiers to dig trenches over our bones." Scatter my ashes in the nearest toilet, he joked.
Finally, Kostiantyn wrote in his will, get yourself some kvass and "go somewhere by the shore, a mountain or a sunset and we can talk alone". After the funeral, his favourite drink was sold out in Rivne.
His mother, Olha, announced that his ashes would be distributed to friends. "Because he loved to travel, volunteers are already lining up to scatter his ashes in the best places in the world," she announced.
Understanding the human cost
According to the Kyiv Independent, his unconventional farewell ceremony in Ukraine – and the plans to scatter his ashes – touched people across Ukraine, where funerals have become a grim part of everyday life.
"It added to a flurry of non-standard funerals of other young activists who are making a mark even after getting killed on the frontline, including activists Roman Ratushny and Pavlo Petrychenko, commander Dmytro Kotsiubailo, poet Maksym Kryvtsov and combat medic and memorialisation activist Iryna Tsybukh," the Kyiv Independent wrote.
Casualties in Ukraine are kept secret, but they run into tens of thousands, possibly more. A survey conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that almost two-thirds of Ukrainians have lost relatives or friends in the war.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to feel the personal tragedies that touch different Ukrainian homes every day, said Emilis Zingeris, a Lithuanian volunteer who scattered the ashes during the short ceremony on September 20. Emilis met Kostiantyn's family when his car broke down near Rivne in the middle of the night. He has been in touch with Olha ever since.
"Statistics are automatically dehumanising," said Emilis, adding that Kostiantyn's death helps put a human face on statistics.
"When you're there with your platoon, the talk about death is constantly circulating. Imagine, you know, there was your colleague's bunk next to you, and a few days later that bunk is empty, and you have to continue to live with that thought, you have to continue to go out to the [fighting] positions," Emilis said.
"We are very far away from this understanding of what happens inside when you go through these things," he added.
Silently saying prayers, Emilis walked across the slippery stones of a stream that entered the Neris River. After a moment's pause, the grey, glistening ashes poured from a glass container into the water. "May your soul always seek the light," said Emilis.
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