The first of three rifle volleys, with blank bullets, takes the loved ones gathered on either side of the gaping hole by surprise and makes them shudder. The cemetery freezes, then the pope resumes the liturgy while singing. The widow clings to the coffin covered with a metallic blue cloth that the 15-year-old son caresses tenderly. Alexander Ohotnichenko died at the age of 45 at the outposts on Monday August 29, the first day of a counter-offensive to retake Kherson, the only provincial capital to have fallen under Russian control since the start of the war on February 24.
