JAKARTA - Eroded on a black marble slab, the names of 11 youths from the Russian city of Semibratovo who died in fighting in Ukraine are a reminder of the war that is now entering three years.
The front line is far away, but the conflict has reached home. Most of the local men who died had played with their classmates in the school yard where the memorial was now standing.
In addition to a statue of a original, marble-sized soldier, there is an inscription that dedicates the memorial to "our compatriots who left their families after February 24, 2022 for the honor and sovereignty of our country."
A Russian flag-colored wreath was placed on the soldiers' feet.
Of the city of 6,000 people, more than 100 people serve in Ukraine.
Locals set up a monument near the school "so that children can pass, and at least there is something left behind in their sub-awareness - this war is a terrible thing", said Viktor Sidorov, chairman of the veteran council Semibratovo.
The memorial shows 'this is a war, and not a kind of 'operation',' said Sidorov. 'People are dying there.'
Reported by Reuters on Friday, February 21, Alexei Gavrilov, one of the monument organizers, said the monument had helped show the city the war was real although some residents did not have family members on the front lines.
Angelina, a local resident, said the warning was shown to the younger generation patriotism of fellow villagers.
"I feel proud of our friends who were there and died like this," said Daria, 20, while pushing the baby's stroller.
As the conflict continues, more and more Semibratovo members have died and new names, many of whose birth dates in the mid-1990s, have been engraved on the slab.
When President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022.
Putin calls it a special military operation', not war. The phrase seems to convince the Russian people of normal life will continue as long as the army completes its work.
But in hundreds of villages in Russia, the conflict has touched many aspects of people's lives.
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