Volunteers from Ukraine, Russia and Slovakia put in order necropolises in Transcarpathia (PHOTOS)

Ukrainian, Russian and Slovak volunteers clear and fit the military cemeteries dated back to the First World War in the Carpathians during two weeks. The camp with hike ‘On the traces of forgotten war’ participants was pitched here, on the territory of Uzhanskyi National Park (Velykyi Bereznyi district).

Necropolises that are left after the Carpathian operation in 1915 fighting are forgotten and neglected now. That is why it was decided to conduct volunteer hike-gathering at an international conference ‘Humanitarian cooperation on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the First World War’ last year in April. An international company agreed to finance the project. A group of volunteers from Transcarpathia, Lviv, Ternopil, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Crimea, as well as volunteers from Russia and Slovakia came to Uzhanskyi NP this year at the end of June. These are the Federation of Scouts ‘Galytska Rus’, Anatoly Lisitsyn’s Fund from Russian Yaroslavl, the Club of Military History ‘Beskydy’ from the Slovak city of Humenne.

More than fifty volunteers worked on the mountain Cheremkha for several days. There are not only the plantations of blueberries and state border in a short step at the height of 1130 meters. There is also located necropolis from more than 650 graves of Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires’ soldiers. Russian and Slovak groups have already returned home, so currently in the camp there are only Ukrainian participants. They live in tents, breakfasts, lunches and dinners they prepare on fire and take a bath in the river. Scouts help Uzhanskyi NP employees to restore the military cemetery which is dated back to the First World War near the railway station Volosianka – 687 soldiers are buried here.

14-year-old Diana is in the camp for the second time. ‘We are clearing all that remained – rocks, grass. In the camp, we have a rest, walk in the night raids and listen to the trainings. We have several patrols, every day is planned, and each of the patrols is in charge of something. Today we are third and fourth patrols and our duty is to clean here. Another patrol was here yesterday, but they did something else.

‘School of warriors’ is the History and Regional Ethnography Camp – explains Maria Semeniuk, a Deputy Chief of hike-gathering – Volunteers are not only work on objects, but also learn how to survive in the mountains, in wild conditions.

Children sometimes a little scared, but they learn how to work in a team, help each other, support and test themselves. After the game even though they may return wet and exhausted, but they always cheerful and happy.