On February 22, at a pro-war propaganda rally-concert in Luzhniki, a volunteer from Chelyabinsk Yuri Gagarin performed with the call sign Angel.
He was introduced as a rescuer of 367 children from Mariupol. Some of these children were allegedly on stage and thanked him. These children are not actors: they really survived the blockade and occupation of Mariupol. The publication “Important stories” told how Russian propaganda used underage Ukrainians, and because of what they had to go to Mariupol occupied by the Russian military.
On February 22, 15-year-old Anya Naumenko said from the stage at Luzhniki:
Thanks to Uncle Yura for saving me, my sister and hundreds of thousands of children from Mariupol.
The younger sister Carolina stood on the stage – she covered her ears from loud sounds. Gagarin replied:
The children of Donbass, the children of Mariupol are our children, and we, the Russian army, are obliged to protect these people and these children.
Anya Naumenko and her sister are indeed from Mariupol. Ten months ago, during the occupation of the city, the girls’ mother was killed by debris.
Olga Naumenko gave birth to Anya first, after her Karolina and her youngest son Daniel were born. Anya was older in the family, but she spent her childhood in an orphanage: on social networks on the pages of her caregivers, you can find photos of the girl in the institution until 2015, after which Olga took Anya home.
According to family acquaintances, Olga’s children were regularly seized from Olga, but then returned.
The mother led an asocial lifestyle, and, as I know, the children were sometimes taken away from her,” recalls a resident of Mariupol, whose daughter went to school with her middle daughter Olga, in a conversation with Important Stories. – But at the same time, Anya was a very well-mannered girl, calm and always looked after her younger sisters and brother.
When the war began, the Naumenko family – Olga with her common-law husband Artur and children Anya, Karolina and Danya – first hid from shelling in the Left Bank Culture Center (the former PC of builders), and then in the building of the Left Bank Administration (district executive committee).
The girl Anya, together with the men under the bombing, ran to [магазину] ATB by product. Everyone was watching the children, except for the mother,” recalls Ekaterina, a resident of Mariupol, who was with them in the basement.
A man who was there at the same time as Naumenko recalls the conditions in the shelter in the building of the district executive committee:
In the room next to us lived women with many children, very marginal, each had three or four children, the children were not well-groomed, they could walk barefoot. Arthur, nicknamed Koschey, came to us, he worked in the 4th hospital. As it later turned out, one of these women is the mother of Arthur’s children. Arthur came to us and helped to charge the phones – he collected all the phones from us and took us to the hospital, where there was a generator. He brought some food to his children, spun around as best he could, I speak positively about him.
Olga died in early April – she, according to eyewitnesses, “ran out for cigarettes”, and she was killed by shrapnel not far from the 4th hospital. She was buried right on the territory of the hospital. This is confirmed by the message in the telegram channel about the dead in Mariupol on April 16.
Victoria, who was with the Naumenko family at the shelter, recalls:
We were all evacuated without asking. Artur took the children, unfortunately, I don’t know what’s next.
Also in the telegram channels you can find another message that Arthur took the children. They seemed to have gone with everyone to Bezymianny (a village in the Donetsk region). Where Arthur is now, his relatives do not know.
On the stage in the Moscow “Luzhniki” “Important Stories” could only identify Anya and Karolina, where Daniil is is unknown. In one of the social networks in Anya, the village of Nikitskoye near Moscow is listed as a place of residence, but two teenagers from Mariupol told Important Stories that Anya studies with them in Mariupol, and left only “for a week.” Two months ago, Anya posted a sad video with the caption “Mom. I want to see you”.
Kostya Vashchishin, who was standing on the stage in a black hat and gray jacket (holding military Gagarin by the left shoulder), was hiding with his parents from shelling in the same places as the Naumenko family: first in the builders’ PC, then in the administration of the Levoberezhny district. Fortunately, the whole family – 37-year-old Igor and Kristina and their 10-year-old son Kostya – survived.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.