Father mourns son killed in shelling on Ukraine soccer field

Cutting off Ukraine’s access to the Black and Azov Seas would deal a crippling blow to Ukraine’s economy. It would also allow Russia to build a land corridor to Crimea, which it seized in 2014

Serhii, father of teenager Iliya, cries on his son’s lifeless body lying on a stretcher (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)

The surgeons leaving the operating room do not make eye contact.

One of them holds up his hands. Another looks down, defeated. It is then that the father waiting at the doorway grabs his forehead, tears welling, and turns away, a wail about to escape his throat.