Wives and mothers of Ukrainian soldiers who died in the fight against Russia planted trees in a public park of the capital Kyiv on Thursday as a way to remember their sacrifice.

22 women, many carrying their beloved ones’ portraits, planted cherry trees to which they also attached replicas of their military dog-tags.

Among the mothers, wives, or siblings of fallen servicemen, was Olesia Slabospytska.

Her husband died in the Donetsk region in July 2023.

She is now left alone with her 3-year-old daughter.

“It’s very painful, still very painful, we have a small daughter left, unfortunately he died on her birthday, she was turning 3 years old that day, she is 5 now, and it’s only the two of us left,” she told the Associated Press.

The tree, she says, is a way to honor him, and to preserve her husband’s memory.

She says she likes to think that in the future her grandchildren could also come here and be connected with her husband.

“It’s really hard, we still remember him as our dad, and we are doing everything for him to be known and remembered, for him not to be forgotten,” she said while holding a portrait of her husband and almost caressing the very young tree she had just planted.

These trees, as well as others already planted in spring, are all named after brothers, sons, and husbands lost in battle, as part of an initiative called “Zhyva”, a word meaning “alive” in Ukrainian, aimed at preserving their memory.

Each tree also bears the replica of the soldiers’ dog-tags.

Officials do not release the number of casualties since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last spoke of Ukrainian military losses in February this year, when he said in an interview that 45,100 troops had been killed and about 390,000 injured.

AP video by Andrea Rosa