In a room thick with the smoke of incense, beneath a glitter ball used in happier times, four shaven-headed Ukrainian soldiers stood to attention.
They wore no caps, and sleeves of their blotchy camouflage coats bore the red
armbands of pall bearers, for between them lay a fifth soldier.
This was the guard of honour for Prapushik Sergei Kokorin, the first - and at
the time of writing only - Ukrainian
serviceman to die during the Russian invasion of Crimea.
Incongruously, the Ukrainian mourners were not alone. Next to them, four
bare-headed, pro-Russian Cossacks in formal blue uniforms stood their own
watch over Ruslan Kazakov - their own single casualty of this hitherto
bloodless annexation.
Both men were killed on Tuesday night during a murky incident at a Ukrainian
military installation in Simferopol.
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