A month into Ukraine’s war with Russia, gravediggers of Lviv mourn the dead

Cemetery workers cover the grave of sergeant Kostiantyn Deriuhin, 44, who was killed in battle during Russia’s attack on Ukraine, during his funeral at the Lychakiv cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, March 27, 2022. Picture taken March 27, 2022 REUTERS/Alkis Konstantinidis

LVIV, Ukraine (Reuters) - On a warm March day that has all the signs of early spring, three burly men lift their shovels from a truck and begin covering a row of fresh graves with sand.

Stefan Ivanchuk, a 60-year-old groundskeeper at Lychakiv cemetery in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, is already sweating as he bends to his work among the graves, where blue and yellow ribbons, the colours of Ukraine, adorn simple wooden crosses.