Loss and horror during week of burials and tears

A woman screams in horror next to the body of a 15-year-old boy killed during a Russian attack in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Another woman is held by a friend as she collapses in grief next to the body of her father, lying on the ground after being killed in an assault on the city.

Across Ukraine loss was palpable all week, as strangers helped recover bodies of civilians from mass graves and relatives grieved over their beloved dead.

On Saturday, 70-year-old Nadiya Trubchaninova, wept as she clung to the coffin of her son, Vadym, as she was finally able to give him a proper burial in their home village of Mykulychi, on the outskirts of Kyiv. The 48-year-old had been killed by Russian troops nearly three weeks earlier in Bucha, where hundreds of civilians have been killed, prompting calls for a war crimes investigation. 

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And in the town of Mykulychi, volunteers placed the corpse of a civilian into a body bag after it and others were dug up from a mass grave, during an exhumation on Sunday. They were to be taken  to a morgue for investigation.

In testimony to the impact such horrors have on the Ukrainian children who witness them, 7-year-old Yehor, his face etched with the pain, clutched a wooden toy rifle next to destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv.

More than 5 million refugees had fled Ukraine by the end of the week, Europe's biggest refugee crisis since World War II. Among them were Lolita and her 4-year-old daughter Elina, who held their hands in the shape of a heart as they bid farewell to husband and father, Nicolai, through the window of a train bound for Poland from the western city of Lviv.

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This gallery contains graphic content.

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A man suspected to be a Russian collaborator is detained during an operation by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A portrait of Vladimir Lenin is used as a shooting target in a frontline village near Chuhuiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Damaged and burned vehicles are seen at a destroyed part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, as smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal during heavy fighting, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov, File)

Ukrainian men queue inside a church to receive humanitarian aid donated by European Union in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A woman cries next to the body of her father lying on the ground after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A Ukrainian sapper prepares to detonate a Russian 250-kilogram air bomb in the village of Kolonshchyna, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Valentyna Volynets, 59, drinks tea made by her neighbor on a makeshift fire in a public garden near their building in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, on Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A civil defense volunteer stands guard at a checkpoint controlling the traffic near Kyiv, Ukraine on Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Elderly people are evacuated from a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. At least 35 men and women, some in wheelchairs and most of them with mobility issues, were helped by volunteers to flee from the region that has been under attack in the last weeks. They are being transported to Khmelnytskyi, in western Ukraine. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Ukrainian Nicolai, 41, says goodbye to his daughter Elina, 4, and his wife Lolita, on a train bound for Poland fleeing from the war at the train station in Lviv, western Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Yehor, 7, stands holding a wooden toy rifle next to destroyed Russian military vehicles near Chernihiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Ukrainian women show their ID inside a church to receive humanitarian aid donated by European Union in Bucha, in the outskirts of Kyiv, on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Emergency workers help injured civilians during a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Passengers rest in the train minutes before arriving in Lviv from Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

The bodies of four people who died during the Russian occupation await burial during funerals in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Wednesday, April 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

A car burns with two people inside, after a Russian bombardment in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Vova, 10, looks at the body of his mother, Maryna, lying in a coffin as his father, Ivan Drahun, prays during her funeral in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday, April 20, 2022. Vova's mother died while they sheltered in a cold basement for more than a month during the Russian military's occupation. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Servicemen of the Donetsk People's Republic militia look at bodies of Ukrainian soldiers placed in plastic bags in a tunnel, part of the Illich Iron & Steel Works Metallurgical Plant, the second largest metallurgical enterprise in Ukraine, in an area controlled by Russian-backed separatist forces in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. (AP Photo/Alexei Alexandrov)

A woman injured in a Russian attack is treated by emergency workers in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

A cat rests inside the grave of Lyudmyla Kononuchenko, 51, who was buried by family and friends after being hit by a rocket on March 23 during the war with Russia, in Irpin, in the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. Kononuchenko's body was exhumed from her yard and taken to the morgue for analysis. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Ukrainian servicemen run for cover as explosions are heard during a Russian attack in downtown Kharkiv, Ukraine, Sunday, April 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

Vadim Krikun is treated in the hallway of his apartment building after a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

EDS NOTE: GRAPHIC CONTENT - Nina Shevchenko, left, mourns next to the body of her 15-year-old son Artem Shevchenko, who was killed in a Russian attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Friday, April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Felipe Dana)

An internally displaced elderly woman from Mariupol looks out of a bus after window arriving at a refugee center fleeing from the Russian attacks, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

An elderly man in a bed at a hospice in Chasiv Yar city, Donetsk district, Ukraine, Monday, April 18, 2022. At least 35 men and women, some in wheelchairs and most of them with mobility issues, were helped by volunteers to flee from the region that has been under attack in the last weeks. They are being transported to Khmelnytskyi, in western Ukraine. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Helena stands next to her belongings after arriving from Mariupol at a refugee center in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022, after fleeing from the Russian attacks. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

Volunteers put in a bag the body of a civilian killed by Russian army, after been removed from a mass grave, during an exhumation in Mykulychi, Ukraine on Sunday, April 17, 2022. All four bodies in the village grave were killed on the same street, on the same day. Their temporary caskets were together in a grave. On Sunday, two weeks after the soldiers disappeared, volunteers dug them up one by one to be taken to a morgue for investigation. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Internally displaced people from Mariupol and nearby towns arrive at a refugee center fleeing from the Russian attacks, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Thursday, April 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

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Text from AP News story, AP PHOTOS: Loss and horror during week of burials and tears

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