By Canadian Press

‘Hero to me’: Kyiv’s memory wall a reminder of losses in Ukraine-Russian conflicts

Jun 16, 2023 | 2:01 AM

KYIV, Ukraine — Yuri Pisarenko reaches high up on the Memory Wall of the Fallen Defenders of Ukraine, pulls down a faded portrait of his grandson and reverently puts an identical photo in its place. 

Timofy Pisarenko, 19, was killed by a landmine a day after Easter. 

The wall, created in 2014, has been updated over the past decade to honour victims of Ukraine’s wars against Russia. While the original panels were neatly structured with orderly military pictures, that changed after the beginning of the Russian invasion in February of last year.

Grieving family members have been placing hundreds of personal photos.

“It’s very important because of what it represents,” Yuri Pisarenko tells The Canadian Press through an interpreter. He shows pictures of his grandson and of a memorial he has at his home.

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“It’s important because so (many) people died for the freedom of Ukraine. There is some anger.”

Pisarenko says the wounds remain fresh, especially ahead of Father’s Day.

“The problem is his younger sister still doesn’t know that he is dead. She is eight years old. She loves him a lot.”

The memory wall has become a focal point in the war with Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden recently visited the wall, as did Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who laid a wreath at the site.

“These are not formal military pictures that are taken when you join the military. These are pictures put here by loved ones, the last pictures that they had, the best pictures that they had,” says Larisa Galadza, Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine.

“When world leaders come to Kyiv, they come here … and spend a few moments in that same space of loss and tragedy and horror.”

Viktoria Lessrnov checks on a photo of her husband, Vitali, who was killed last September by a Russian mortar.

“I saw that his picture has faded, so next time I will bring a new photo,” she says through an interpreter as she wipes away a tear.

“He was always being the hero for me. I feel a little bit better now.”

She says this year Father’s Day is going to be extra difficult for their two daughters, ages 10 and 6. 

“They still deny the fact of his death. They don’t believe that he is dead. I just wish they had more time together …  our daughters and their father,” Lessrnov says.

“I want the world to know what’s going on in Ukraine inside the country. At what price is victory and independence of Ukraine?”

Children play near a collection of burned-out Russian tanks and military vehicles. One ventures near the memory wall and looks at the Canadian wreath.

“This generation of children have lost their childhood,” the child’s father says in Ukrainian.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 16, 2023.

Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press