In Russian town, monument to fallen soldiers shows toll of three years of war

SEMIBRATOVO, Russia (Reuters) - Carved onto slabs of black marble, the names of 11 young men from the Russian town of Semibratovo who died fighting in Ukraine are a stark reminder of a war that is now three years old.

The frontline is far away, but the conflict has come home. Most of the local men who have died once played with their classmates in the schoolyard where the memorial now stands.

Beside the life-sized figure of a soldier chiselled into the marble, an inscription dedicates the memorial to "our fellow countrymen who left their families after February 24, 2022 for the honour and sovereignty of our Motherland."

A wreath of flowers in the colours of the Russian flag lie at the soldier's feet.

From a town of 6,000, more than 100 are serving in Ukraine.

Locals erected the monument by the school "so that the children would walk by, and at least something would remain in their subconscious - that this war is a terrible thing", says Viktor Sidorov, chairman of the Semibratovo veterans' council.

The memorial shows "that it is a war, and not some kind of 'operation'," Sidorov says. "People are dying there."

Alexei Gavrilov, one of the monument's organisers, says it has helped show the town that the war is real - even if some residents don't have a family member on the frontline.

Angelina, a local woman, said the memorial shows young people "the patriotism of our fellow villagers".

"I feel pride for our guys who were there and died like this," says Daria, 20, pushing a pram.

As the conflict drags on, more of Semibratovo's men have died and new names, many with birth dates in the mid-1990s, have been carved onto the slab.

When President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, he called it a "special military operation", not a war. The phrase seemed to reassure Russians that normal life would carry on while the army got the job done.

But in hundreds of Russian villages, the conflict has touched many aspects of public life.

Across town in Semibratovo, photographs of dead soldiers hang on the gates of an Orthodox church.

At a snowy cemetery nearby, flags of the Wagner mercenary group and Storm-Z convict units ripple above fresh graves.

One headstone shows a soldier with a machine gun: "He who died in battle lives forever!"

(Reporting by Reuters in Semibratovo; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in London; Editing by Giles Elgood)