Grief is complicated, and people tend to pay their respects to the dead in a number of ways depending on a number of factors, including religious beliefs and cultural norms. I’m not sure which culture encourages twerking at a grave site, however; it’s definitely not the norm in Ukrainian culture, however, considering two sisters are facing jail time for filming themselves twerking next to their father’s grave.


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The girls’ father was a soldier who was killed defending Ukraine during the ongoing war with Russia, and they sought to honor his memory by filming themselves dancing next to his grave and the graves of other fallen soldiers at Kyiv’s Forest Cemetery. Initially, the pair defended themselves by saying that their father would have found the video hilarious, but they eventually conceded that the video was inappropriate.


Despite admitting that their video was in poor taste, police confirmed that the women will be charged with desecrating a grave, a charge that can result in up to five years in prison.


Following the online backlash, one of the sisters posted an apology to social media which read: “My sister and I apologize. We honor every fallen soldier for our homeland. We visited the grave of our fallen father, who died near Izium. Unfortunately, it was not very correct to post this kind of video, although we did not intend to defame heroes.”



Some commenters agreed that while the video was undoubtedly in poor taste, particularly given the presence of graves belonging to other soldiers, jail time would be an extreme response. One commenter on the r/Ukraine subreddit suggested, “These girls, most probably had lack of attention, so [the government could give them] a social matter job, like cleaning [the] cemetery or doing some other job for a few weeks/months as a consequence.”


Others pointed out that they would be unlikely to get five years’ jail time for the offense, and would more likely face another kind of “restriction,” such as house arrest.


No word if twerking privately at home would violate the terms of any kind of house arrest.