How we honour the dead
The situation in Ukraine is becoming increasingly dire. The Russian war of aggression is claiming dozens of lives every day. But how can we honour the memory of these people? How do we honour the memory of our people today?

Since the fighting started, a paramedic has been working on this issue and pushing for a rethink. She also left clear instructions for her own funeral. The New York Times has published her story (you can find it here).
Iryna Tsybukh found the usual large Soviet-style memorials for the war dead, which are common in Ukraine, and found them a bit of an issue. She made the case for a more human approach to commemorating the dead. She said the monuments were impersonal and built to celebrate the power of a totalitarian state rather than the achievements of its citizens, especially Ukrainian farmers. This was completely at odds with Ukrainian values.
Ukrainians need to understand that their daily lives go on because others have died to protect them, she said just weeks before she died. Tsybukh passed away on the front line near Kharkiv in May, just a few days before her 26th birthday.
She’d even planned her own funeral down to the last detail. In her video message to a friend, she said that mourners should wear a traditional embroidered shirt. It would be great if everyone could learn ten meaningful Ukrainian songs to sing at her coffin. “Everyone will sing and learn something”, she said with a smile in her message. “In short, my funeral will not have been in vain.”
And that’s exactly what she’d been pushing for in interviews and on social media for the rest of the country. She’d also asked the government to look at the different ways people in Ukraine are remembering the war and to promote the best of these instead of focusing on monuments to unknown soldiers. “We’re different.” In an interview on YouTube, she said, “We know everyone who died for Ukraine.” “That’s why there can’t be a memorial for an unknown soldier in the Ukrainian format.”
Thousands of people took part in the two-day memorial service for her. They sang and honoured her around a bonfire, just as she had wished. In an interview, she once said, “If we stay alive, we unconsciously take responsibility for the dead. We have to talk about it and remember what happened. That’s the way to be at peace with ourselves.”