By Samya Kullab and Emilio Morenatti | Photos Emilio Morenatti | Published Feb. 22, 2023

The ghostly gazes of Ukraine's war dead are losing definition.

At a cemetery in Irpin, a suburb of Kyiv, photographs affixed to headstones are almost imperceptible. Exposed to rain, sun and frost since the war began nearly a year ago, the graveside portraits' once-bright hues are fading away and yellow stains and mold are encroaching.

Among them is an elderly man who froze to death under Russian occupation, a young man believed to have been tortured and hanged, and an elderly woman who died alone and afraid.

The men and women buried between March and July in Irpin — and at cemeteries in Bucha, Kyiv, Lviv and beyond — are silent witnesses to the human cost of Russia’s invasion. Like their graveside photographs — a tradition in Ukraine — the stories of their lives are also at risk of becoming less clear: families have moved away, neighbors are losing their memories, and some relatives who remain are tired of recounting the sorrowful details.

Full photo gallery by Emilio Morenatti

After Russian forces' brutal monthlong occupation of Irpin, Ukrainian soldiers retook the city at the end of March after fierce urban fighting. Residents there — and in Bucha and Hostomel, too — gave horrific accounts to prosecutors and journalists of violence and death suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers.

The photographs at the Irpin cemetery contain stories of their own.

In the worn-out portrait of Anatoly Olofunskyi, it is still possible to see the pattern of the military shirt the former soldier is wearing, though his facial features have become faint after a regular battering of snow and rain. His mother, Ludmilla, says she has changed the photograph twice since he died last spring.

Ludmilla keeps an unblemished copy of that photograph in her bedroom and starts each day by saying “Good morning, son.” At night, he appears in her dreams and tells her not to cry.

A faded portrait of Anatoly Olofunskyi, 39, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

The day Ludmilla discovered her deceased 39-year-old son in the bathroom of his apartment down the street, he was hanging by his neck. A medical expert later told her that he had been bound and tortured.

Ludmilla says she has given up changing her son’s cemetery portrait, but she visits his grave regularly — and believes that he still communicates with her.

Once she saw two birds at his gravesite. She knew instantly what this meant. Anatoly had been unmarried when he died. “So,” she said, “you’ve finally found someone.”

At another gravestone nearby, a framed portrait of Dina Pivin hangs above the snow, her eyes, mouth and cheeks well-defined even as the rest of the image loses clarity.

She died alone in her flat at age 84, afraid to leave and without food. Her grandson, Serhii, had fled before the Russians arrived.

After the block her apartment is on was shelled, the building manager grew concerned because he hadn’t heard from her. He asked one of the cleaners to check on her. The man arrived and found the key still lodged in Pivin’s door, and the woman lying on the ground.

A faded portrait of Dina Pivin, 84, sits on her grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. She died alone in her flat at age 84, afraid to leave and without food. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Long before the war, Halyna Mandrik had photos of herself and her husband, Volodymyr, printed and framed.

She wanted to make things easy for their children in the event of their deaths. The photos would be there, in plastic bags, ready to be nailed to the cross when their time came.

A photograph of Volodymyr, deeply faded and stained with mold, is now attached to his headstone. What is left of his facial features appears in a weathered shade of greenish-blue.

Because of a severe head injury Volodymyr suffered roughly 16 years ago, Halyna was unable to move him to their basement shelter when the Russian forces arrived. So she kept him in their bedroom.

A worn-out portrait of Volodymyr Mandrik, 83, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Shelling had cut out the power, and the nights were freezing. Halyna was too scared to leave home to find firewood. She covered her husband with blankets and cooked for him, but in the last week of his life she said he stopped taking food. She didn’t know why.

One morning she awoke to find that Volodymyr, at 83, had died. “He froze,” she said, matter-of-factly.

She knows his portrait is fading away, and has no plans to change it.

A faded portrait of Natalya Savlukova, 61, sits on her grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. Savlukova lived alone. She had terminal cancer but no one could say how she died, only that it had been under occupation. She was buried on March 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A portrait of Sgt. Mykhaylovych Shchrman, 42, partially-covered by snow, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. He was killed on April 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Ivan Oleksandr Volodymyrovych, 41, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was killed on March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Portraits of soldier Bogdan Volodymrovych, 46, sit on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was killed on May 31, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Ivan Tychynskyi Petrovych, 82, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on June 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A portrait of Sgt. Oleksandrovych Sixoy, 30, partially-covered by snow, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Lviv, Ukraine Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023. He was killed on April 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Samar Volodymyr Mykolayovych, 64, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on March 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Ivan Pylypovych Kutsenko, 72, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on April 1, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Andriy Serhiovych, 36, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. He was buried on March 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Petro Vasylovych, 57, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on May 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A faded portrait of Sergey Oleksandrovich, 33, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was killed on June 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A faded portrait of Olena Serhiivna, 54, sits on her grave at a cemetery in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. She was buried on April 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Oleksandr Anatoliyovych, 43, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on July 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A worn-out portrait of Oleksandr Gryhorovych, 59, lies next to his grave at a cemetery in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023. He was buried on May 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Lead Photo: A worn-out portrait of Dmytro Andriyovych, 34, sits on his grave at a cemetery in Irpin, Ukraine, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Friday, Feb. 10, 2023. He was buried on April 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Text from APNews story, Fading graveside portraits of Ukraine's war dead

AP Writer Vasilisa Stepanenko contributed to this report.

Photos by Emilio Morenatti