Night Train
Don’t pay attention to the sirens, watch what the Ukrainians do. I had ignored the advice and was the only one fully dressed, with a suitcase and backpack. “First time?” they seemed to ask
The conductor shook my ankle as the train stopped abruptly. It was 3.00am with a sharp March frost in the air. We were heading from Dnipro to Lviv and hadn’t yet made it to the halfway point in Kyiv. The three in my compartment started to put on clothes and jackets. “Exercise time,” said the priest. He pointed to the roof. “Drones maybe, probably not”. I started to get dressed and hauled down my bags from the top bunk and stumbled down the carriage stairs. No one else took their luggage. I was the squid.
Don’t pay attention to the sirens, watch what the Ukrainians do. I had ignored the advice and was the only one fully dressed, with a suitcase and backpack. “First time?” they seemed to ask.
Everyone was in good spirits. Some stood on the top of the embankment and caught up on a smoke. Some listened to music and shared food and drink.
The priest did not look like a priest. He was a military Ukrainian Catholic priest who had been wounded in the head in the 2014 to 2015 phase of the war, when Ukraine lost about 6,000 soldiers and the world paid little mind. The shrapnel had seared a sixteen-inch gash across the top of his head where his hair didn’t grow properly. He’d been in hospital for nine months. No, he didn’t have headaches but often lost his sense of balance. He had presided over 2,000 burials at the Krasnopilske Cemetery in Dnipro. “I now look after the living and the dead”.
The wind whipped around the cemetery, the trees trembled and the flags flapped causing motion and disorder. There were a few people fanning out around the graves, some tending to them and some just standing. Shadows passed looking for a home, and graves, some new, some fresh, some bare, some flowered, stretched across the field. Life stood still for a moment.
The first one I saw was Pavlo.
The priest had held prayers over his grave. Pavlo was 34 when he was killed in November 2023. He was with the 413th Separate Rifle Battalion, which was in Kupiansk, near Kharkiv, at the time, or about four hours north and east of his grave. He was awarded the Cross of Courage and was killed during an assault. The granite reads “he covered a group of soldiers at the cost of his life.”
“When I’m dead, let me slumber, underneath a mound. Mid the rolling steppe, with precious Ukraine around”. Taras Schevchenko
The same day Putin claimed Russia was “Eastern Europe, the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan), the Soviet Union, the Russian Empire, Kingdom of Muscovy…” which takes in about 15 sovereign countries, Alaska and parts of California. He restated his determination to “dominate” Ukraine.
Then Vlad.
He was only 20 and died two days after the invasion. His Mum, Misha, visits as often as she can but she’s an “Internally Displaced Person” from Luhansk, where her son was killed, and she is often lonely in Dnipro. He was in a reconnaissance platoon and in the field at 2.00am. He “inflicted losses on the enemy” and was awarded the Cross of Courage.
The same day, the Kremlin announced they expected to “overcome heavier than anticipated Ukrainian resistance.” The next day, Ukrainian forces retook Kherson and halted the Russian drive to Odesa.
Valerii
He was 34 and his call sign was ChPK or “Chipeck.” He also died early in the war in Mariupol, on the day the city fell. Russians killed 25,000 in Mariupol including 300 children in a theater clearly marked “Children” on its roof. He was one of the many defensive pockets and was probably surrounded when killed.
He holds a U.S. made hand-held anti-tank rocket called a Javelin with a spare rocket on his shoulder. Javelins were widely used in the early days of the war and became a popular Ukrainian meme with the Madonna holding a Javelin under the title of St Javelin. They cost $200,000 a round and Ukraine now makes a drone that does that same job for $5,000.
After the fall of the city, the Russians invited bloggers into the city to say it was all a ruse, and no-one died. In the week after May 22, 2022, Russian Foreign Minister Dmitry Lavrov, called the crime “pathetic shouting about so-called atrocities.” Steve Witkoff, a New York landlord, says that there is never any reason to doubt Lavrov.
Vitalli
Vitalli was 26 when he died on July 29, 2023.
His grave is just a slab with the headstone removed. He grew up in a village of 1,400 in Donetsk and 237 kilometers away from his grave. He died 45 kilometers from his home. His parents said he was friendly, open, social and positive. That’s all they could say. They live in occupied territory and were not allowed to attend the funeral. Nor can they fly the Ukrainian flag or put a memorial in place. He was killed in the middle of a counteroffensive.
The same day 40 children were taken by the Russians from Kherson to Nalchik, a village near Georgia 1,700 km from their home. They have not returned.
Candy on the grave
Last summer I met a mother putting candy and sweets on her son’s grave. She came twice a week. He liked martial arts and he didn’t like it when she smoked. The grave was immaculate. The rest of her family was far away but she would stay near him.
“I come every week…twice if I can.” She had started to cry.
This time, the grave had weeds and no flowers.
“She does not come anymore,” said someone.
The Train
I remembered my visits to the cemetery. The priest pulled out his phone and went through the photos of the burials. The images flashed past, his fingers pulled fast, as if he could not remain on any one for too long.
“The women weep, the people weep, we celebrate the dead” he said, half remembering his vocation.
“Does it mean something?”
“Yes, God lives and is love and here He has hidden jewels of great wealth.”
“But these boys, will they be where there is no pain?”
“They already are.”
I work with Artesans ResQ in Dnipro.
Please check these excellent substacks on Ukraine
Philips O’Brien:
Minna Alander:
Julius Strauss:
I like writing this newsletter and thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I’ve drifted somewhat from capital markets and investments. I’m mostly about Ukraine these days but will dive back into investments at a moment’s notice! None of my content is gated. Feel free to pass on.
Sources:
https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300284348/arabesques/
https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.14947?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.14947
https://dn.gov.ua/news/latartsev-vitalii-hennadiiovych?utm_source=chatgpt.com
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment_28-12/
https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russia-ukraine-warning-update-russian_26/
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Anthology_of_Modern_Slavonic_Literature_in_Prose_and_Verse/Legacy
Personal stories like yours, Christian, are the best way to understand what the Ukrainians are going through in their fight for survival of their democracy.
Another great story, Christian. I’m thrilled to see you fighting the good fight. You always stood out as an honorable man in a not-always-honorable business. I admire how you are living out your values to the fullest.