29

Aug

Death is not just a number say women in Ukraine

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Amitabh Srivastava

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New Delhi | Thursday | 29 August 2024

It’s a moving story.

The war in Ukraine is affecting its ordinary citizens in two ways.

One, they are donning the war uniform to fight for their country and secondly, they are turning poets and fighting to give dignity and meaning to the lives lost.

Ms. Iryna Tsybukh, a combat medic, educationist and journalist, who died before she could be 26 this May even decided how her own funeral and that of other martyrs should be organised.

Her logic, “When we stay alive, we unwittingly become responsible to the dead, to talk and remember what happened,” she said just weeks before she was killed. “This is the way to be at peace with ourselves.”

Her funeral should be “awesome,” the young Ukrainian combat medic said, if it went as she had planned.

Mourners should wear a traditional embroidered shirt known as a vyshyvanka, she said in a video message to a friend outlining her wishes for her funeral if she was killed and soldiers could come in army fatigues. And, she further instructed, everybody should learn 10 “meaningful” Ukrainian songs to sing around her coffin.

“Everyone will sing and learn something,” she said in her message, smiling. “In short, my funeral won’t be in vain.”

 

Article at a Glance
In the midst of the Ukraine war, ordinary citizens are finding ways to honor their fallen heroes. Iryna Tsybukh, a 25-year-old combat medic, educationist, and journalist, left a lasting legacy before her untimely death.
She planned her own funeral, wanting it to be a celebration of life, with mourners wearing traditional embroidered shirts and singing Ukrainian songs. Tsybukh also campaigned for a nationwide one-minute silence to honor the dead, believing it would remind civilians of the sacrifices made for their freedom.
Her message of resilience and courage has inspired thousands, who attended her farewell ceremonies in Kyiv and Lviv. Her final words, "Kisses. I lived, loved, fought," have become a testament to her unwavering spirit. Tsybukh's story is a poignant reminder of the human cost of war and the power of ordinary people to make a difference.

 

Ms. Tsybukh who had a huge following on social media was not happy with the practice of building ‘unknown’ soldier monuments for those killed in the war with Russia.

“We are different. We know everyone who died for Ukraine,” she said in an interview on YouTube. “We will surely identify all the people. That’s why no monument for an unknown soldier can exist in the Ukrainian format.”

As long as she lived she also campaigned for giving more teeth to the practice of maintaining a one-minute silence for the dead soldiers and civilians that had been started by the Zelenskyy regime when the war had started.  In many parts of the country the practice is followed by people and in some places, cars and people come to a stop for a minute every morning. However, in places like Kyiv, the capital, most people ignore it.

Just months before her death, Ms. Tsybukh, wearing her military uniform, went on to give a presentation in Kyiv along with other activists to press for the expansion of the practice across the country.

She wanted the country to follow the practice of observing the practice pf observing a minute of silence every day at 9 am to remind Ukrainian civilians not to forget those who gave their lives so they could be alive.

This becomes more relevant when one realises how a country with a population of 38 million is refusing to be gobbled up by a Super Power with Super arms and ammunition and a population of 144,820,423.

“The highest value is freedom,” she wrote in a letter that her brother later posted online. “To have freedom, you need to also hold other kinds of values. You need to understand yourself, to clearly know who you are for yourself, what your personal happiness is, and how you can reach it. Once you have the answers to this question, the most important thing is to keep going.”

The New York Times reports that thousands attended the two days of farewell ceremonies organised for Ms. Tsybukh in Kyiv and Lviv.

Her coffin was placed in the soil of a military cemetery in Lviv, and people gathered around a bonfire nearby singing and drinking tea, as she wished.

The best came at end.

Before the burial, her brother read out a message form her saying, “I’ll end the way she ended her will,” he said, “Kisses. I lived, loved, fought.’”

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