Video: Rain Has Eroded the National Military Cemetery
At the National Military Memorial Cemetery in the Kyiv region, heavy rainfall caused the road surface to erode and dangerous sinkholes to form in the burial area.
According to information from the KECC, the gravel roads on the cemetery grounds were washed away by streams of water, leading in some places to the complete collapse of the asphalt and landslides.
The organization emphasizes that significant sinkholes formed directly in the burial areas, and staff at the memorial complex have already attempted to repair some of the damage near the graves.
Environmentalists are convinced that the incident was caused by more than just natural soil subsidence following burial work.
In their view, the situation is caused by serious deficiencies in the water drainage system, which are leading to the erosion of the fill soil used to artificially raise the ground level for construction.
Issues related to hydrology and the potential flooding of the National Military Memorial Cemetery were repeatedly raised by local residents as early as the planning stage.
Residents of Markhalivka expressed concerns that large-scale construction and the drainage of the forested area could negatively affect the condition of local wells and groundwater.
In response to these concerns, representatives of the state-owned enterprise “National Military Memorial Cemetery” previously assured the public that only safe areas had been selected for burials.
According to the enterprise’s deputy director, Yaroslav Starushchenko, the selected sites are “absolutely flood-free,” and the groundwater level there should not rise critically close to the surface.
However, experts and environmentalists—including Volodymyr Boreyko, head of the Kyiv Environmental and Ecological Center—have long questioned the effectiveness of the drainage systems used.
They warned of high risks of waterlogging in areas with complex terrain, as well as the possibility of landslides—a risk that, unfortunately, was confirmed following the latest bout of bad weather.
The Kyiv Ecological and Cultural Center reported on the consequences of the storm, releasing photos and video evidence of the damage at the site.
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