Evhen Ryabukon patted the coffin gently, and appeared to be having a final conversation with his son. He broke down, over and over again, before he could finish.

His wife Inna, steeling herself, adjusted the framed photo of a smiling, young boy placed on the coffin - a mother's last act of care.

The boy was Elisei Ryabukon. He would have been 14 in May.

Just over a month after he was killed in firing by Russian soldiers, his family, friends, neighbours and classmates gathered at a church in the city of Brovary in the east of Kyiv, to say goodbye to this much loved child from Peremoha village. A community that had been scattered by war, came together in grief.

Elisei was remembered as honest, humble and helpful, a boy who didn't like to fight and who refused to play aggressive sport.

Inna, Elisei and her younger son were stuck in Peremoha when the fighting started.