Residents of the city of Rubizhne, in the east of Ukraine, began digging up bodies that were hastily buried in yards during the fighting in order to give them a dignified burial, Reuters reports, News reports. ro.

Rubizhne is part of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, where Russian forces took full control in early July, more than four months after President Vladimir Putin launched a so-called “special military operation” in Ukraine.

On Friday, men raked the ground in front of a damaged residential building in the town of 50,000.

Lilia Ai-Talatini, 48, watched as workers removed the blanket covering her mother, who was quickly buried after the attacks that began in March split the city in two.

Ai-Talatini said that the fighting at that time prevented her from reaching her parents’ apartment for 10 days.

“Mother was already dying… her hands were blue, her skin was pale, there were dark circles under her eyes. The next day, my mother died,” she said.

Ai-Talatin and her husband had no shovels, so they had to drag the body into a trench dug in the ground while the shells flew.

“It’s easier for me because she’s not outside…buried in inhumane conditions. Now we will take her to the cemetery, we have a plot there,” the woman added.

The border is now controlled by the pro-Russian forces of the self-proclaimed LPR

The search for the bodies is being coordinated by the Russian-backed Luhansk People’s Republic. An official from Luhansk, Anna Sorokina, said that the group worked in Rubizhny for 10 days and exhumed 104 sets of remains.

“It is clear that shrapnel injuries predominate, but there are also bullet wounds,” the woman added, estimating that there are a total of 500 unofficial graves in the city.

A total of six bodies were buried near the badly damaged apartment building and placed in a van before being examined by specialists from another part of the city.

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