DNIPRO, Ukraine — In a cemetery on the outskirts of the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, mourners gathered for the burial of Mykhailo Korenovsky, a boxing coach killed Saturday in the Russian missile strike on an apartment building.
Korenovsky is among the more than 40 people who were killed in the strike, one of many attacks on civilians far from the front lines since Russia's full-scale invasion began last February. Young children, a pregnant woman and a 15-year-old ballet dancer were also among the victims.
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Three priests, standing at the edge of Korenovsky's coffin, presided over the burial with prayers and song. As the coffin was lowered into the ground, Olha Korenovska, Mikhailo's wife, hid her face in a bouquet of yellow roses. After a moment, she lifted her head and began to trace her hand across a framed photo of her husband's face, set up at the foot of the gravesite.
Hundreds of people came to the cemetery to pay their respects; many of the mourners were young men whom Korenovsky had trained. They brought flowers, and several men brought boxing gloves.
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"He was always a positive person, he made a lot of jokes," one of the students he trained who attends the Pridniprovsk State Academy of Physical Education and Sport told a Ukrainian TV station. "He was kind and helped a lot. He was a great man."
Officials say 45 people died in the attack, and 19 are still unaccounted for. Korenovsky's funeral is one of the first of many that will take place in the coming days.
NPR's Lauren Migaki contributed to this report from Kyiv.
