kYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When he gave himself up to Russian forces in May at the pulverized zAzovstal steel mill in Mariupol, the wounded Ukrainian soldier could not say a proper goodbye to his slain friend, whose body had to be left behind with hundreds of other dead.
The former prisoner of war, who goes by the name of David, finally got his chance Thursday at a Kyiv crematorium.
Moving carefully on crutches after his left leg was amputated, David and other soldiers bade farewell to Ilya Honcharov, whose coffin was draped in the yellow-and-blue Ukrainian flag.
“A sweet death in agony for you,” they intoned. “I will dissolve in you and live forever in you.”
David is one of the few POWs from the Azovstal siege that Russia has freed in an exchange.
And the body of the 26-year-old Honcharov, among hundreds the two sides also have swapped even as they fight each other, is one of the very few that Ukrainian authorities have been able to identify. His brother recognized one of his tattoos.
In the two months since the Azovstal's fighters surrendered, ending their dogged defense of the sprawling plant that became a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the war against Russia, few families and friends of those killed or captured have been able to find closure.
Still unanswered are gnawing questions of how, where and when loved ones died. Some remains may never be recovered.