The war in Ukraine has left thousands of widows, and some widowers, across the country struggling to find a way forward.
Some use support groups to cope. Others process their grief alone.
Widows feel like they are still wives to their husbands. But the memories can be painful.
Children can provide purpose, and jobs a distraction.
Friendship and shared experience often help the most.
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How Ukraine’s Widows Are Shouldering Their Grief
As Ukraine’s cemeteries have filled with dead soldiers, a legion of war widows has been growing.
It is impossible to say how many widows this war has created because Ukraine closely guards its casualty figures. But estimates suggest they number in the tens of thousands.
The widows all have loss in common. But each copes in her or his own way.
Iryna Sharhorodska, 29, always told her husband everything. His death did not change that — for over a year, she has visited his grave daily to speak to him.
Her husband, Oleksandr Sharhorodskyi, was killed in May 2023, days before Russian forces captured the city of Bakhmut. Ms. Sharhorodska said she was haunted by questions after stumbling across a video on social media that showed medics trying to save him.
“I looked and was trying to imagine how it was for him,” she said. “What was he thinking? Was he in pain?”
Her two children — Sofiia, 7, and Tymofii, 5 — often speak about their father. The passage of time has not softened their pain.
“They say time helps, but it is not true,” she said. “I would say the opposite; it only gets worse.”