Under a sunny and blue sky, a small silent crowd took part in the interment of a 28-year-old man on Wednesday.

With no outpourings of grief or shrieks, people held back their tears and hugged briefly.

In this port, people either serve in the military, or are the wives or children of servicemen, and people are used to paying tribute to the casualties of war.

A monument stands erect in the city centre to remember the "Ukrainian heroes" who fell in Donbass, the pro-Russian separatist region in eastern Ukraine. The conflict that erupted in the east in 2014 has claimed the lives of 14,000 people.

Elsewhere a tomb is adorned with the effigy of a young sailor killed in 2016, and the inscription: "You will always be 23 years old."

At the exit to the cemetery, the dead man's father, a colonel who gave his name as Anatoly, agreed to say a few words to AFP.

"I buried my son today. He was a pilot shot down on a combat mission on March 4 at 12:10 pm. Four rockets brought down his Mi-8 helicopter."

Head lowered, his breathing cut short with stifled sobs, he went on.

"There will be no forgiveness for the Kacaps," he said, using a derogatory term for Russians. "As long as I serve in the army, I will destroy them. There will be no prisoners."

It took days to identify his son's body after the attack.

This was the case for the other soldiers who perished on February 24 when the Russians bombarded Ochakiv's naval base and port, which Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed was in the hands of the Americans.

A city administrator, Alexy Vaskov, said 24 servicemen died on the first day, and not all the bodies have been recovered.

The funerals of those who have been identified only began on Tuesday.

- 'We're holding on' -

On the banks of the Black Sea with around 15,000 residents, Ochakiv is a city of small, low houses and wide deserted streets.

A visitor crosses paths with only a few residents, shopping bags in hand, suspicious and in a hurry.

Nobody speaks about the war, nor the bombardments which still occur daily, even if they lack the intensity of the early days.

"The situation is calm here, we lack nothing, nobody is hiding and we continue to live," said Piotr, a man in his sixties on a bicycle.

He declined to give his family name, like virtually all the people one meets in the town.

"There was a bombardment this morning around 6:00 am, near the port. I don't know anything more," said Anatoly, another pensioner.

His wife added: "The soldiers asked us to say nothing."

A man wearing a woolly hat approached and introduced himself as Gennadyi.

"People here have a patriotic spirit. The Russians would do well to avoid this place. Because we are ready to send them back in coffins," he said.

Vaskov, the city official, conceded that 40 to 50 civilians are evacuated from Ochakiv every day by bus.

Ochakiv is equidistant between Odessa, the main Black Sea port, and Mykolaiv to the east.

The latter has for days seen heavy fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian soldiers, who are trying to capture Odessa.

"If we compare this to other cities, the situation is relatively calm for the moment," the official said, while admitting that shells land daily.

What's more, "the main military units that were based in Ochakiv have left to protect other cities" that are more exposed, Vaskov said. "But the Russians will not come here by sea. We are very well protected. We are holding on."

Tamara, an elderly woman, is not reassured. "Yes, I'm afraid, of course, like everybody. Not you?" she said with a small smile.