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As the battles continue, following the Russian forces’ attack on Ukraine, we share memories from a few of the thousands of people who have lost friends, family, and colleagues during the war. We have been receiving audio messages for people from all walks of life: a toymaker, a photographer, a city mayor, an engineer, soldiers and journalists.

They include one from Tatyana, whose younger brother joined the army to defend his country eight years ago. He died in Mariupol at the age of 34.
Gregory, a journalist, pays tribute to a much-loved colleague, Vera, who died in a missile attack on her apartment. He describes how he heard a report on the evening news of an explosion in which one person had been killed and the shock of discovering the following morning that his friend was the person who had died.

Some deaths have no direct connection to the fighting, but the war has affected people in other ways. Katya remembers her mother Zenaida, a coal mining engineer, who died through illness. She describes the emotional impact of not being able to attend her funeral.

(Photo: People stand amid newly-made graves at a cemetery in the settlement of Staryi Krym outside Mariupol, Ukraine, May 2022. Credit: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)