KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in the heart of the Ukrainian capital is where Kyiv mourns its soldiers and its prominent dead, the casualties of a war Russia began more than four years ago. On Tuesday, it held two white coffins, side by side, bearing the bodies of two girls.Liubava Yakovlieva was 12. Her sister, Vira, was 17. They were killed when a Russian missile tore through their Kyiv apartment building on May 14, burying them under rubble. Twenty-four people were killed in the strike.The girls’ mother, Tetiana, sat beside the coffins, the family’s sole surviving member. The father, Yevhen, was killed on the front line as a soldier three years ago.Dozens of children came to say goodbye. Classmates of the sisters, dressed in black, supported each other. Buckets at the foot of the coffins overflowed with flowers, and bouquets lay across the floor.
Photographs on the coffins showed the blond Liubava and Vira, wearing glasses.Adults and children wept. Among the mourners stood several of Yevhen Yakovliev’s fellow soldiers.Before the war, he was known as a talented cook, fisherman and handyman. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, he enlisted. He was killed in action on April 7, 2023, near the village of Dibrova in the Luhansk region.
