Kyiv Buries 2 Sisters Killed in 24-Dead Russian Missile Strike
Updated
Updated · The Associated Press · May 19
Kyiv Buries 2 Sisters Killed in 24-Dead Russian Missile Strike
8 articles · Updated · The Associated Press · May 19
St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv held a funeral Tuesday for Liubava Yakovlieva, 12, and her sister Vira, 17, killed when a Russian missile hit their apartment building on May 14.
Twenty-four people died in that strike, and the girls’ mother, Tetiana, sat beside the two white coffins as the family’s only surviving member after their father was killed fighting on the front line in 2023.
Dozens of children, classmates and several of their father’s fellow soldiers joined the service, where teachers and family friends remembered Vira’s artistic talent and Liubava’s quiet resilience.
Priest Efrem Khomiak cast the funeral as a national loss, saying the family’s grief belongs to all of Ukraine as Russian attacks continue to bring the war deep into civilian life.
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