When we went to the Maidan, my son hadn't yet graduated from the university in Donetsk, the university where he studied. He went to the Maidan right away. And I remember coming home from work and seeing what was happening there. I turned on the TV and watched what was happening. Oh, my God, tires were burning, cobblestones were being thrown, gunfire. God, I was so afraid. I remember coming in, falling to my knees, praying that everything would end well. And yet, there must be a God in the world because there was a wind then, and the smoke was directed at the Berkut [riot police], not at our guys and girls. God, it was so scary, God forbid. — How did your son decide to go to the Maidan? — Yes, he did. He decided to go to the Maidan and went there. He came back, and I remember going out to buy him a warm jacket, because it was winter, it was cold, so he wouldn't freeze. And then the war, he enlisted as a volunteer to fight. And he had never served in the army either. I said, “Son, how are you going to do it without training, without anything?” He said, “Why, if those who are supposed to fight and defend us do not go to war, then we will have to.”
Well, you see, our residents are diverse. Some are for, some against. The environment where I worked at NKMZ [Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant] was more pro-Russian. Although there were patriots there, too, there were much fewer of us. I can tell you about a case when... we already had a tool shop there, and there was a wall near it, near the TsZL [Central Factory Laboratory]. And one day you would walk by and see the Ukrainian flag painted blue and yellow. The next day, they had already stained it with red paint. The next day, you go and see whoever painted it has [painted] our flag again. And for a long time, it kept changing like that. And then someone painted it gray, and it stopped. And there was also a Lenin [statue] at the factory. They also drew on him and poured paint on him. Lenin was removed quite recently, because it was a closed joint-stock company, and entrance was not permitted, although even then they were changing the streets and everything, Lenin remained intact.
You know, if we saw them standing there, where our militsiya, the police [station is situated], they were standing there, these Russians. They were Russians, because I know Russian very well. He was marching with a gun. <...> Every day after work, I used to walk right past this police [station]. I looked to see whether our flag was still flying or not. And every time I saw these people walking back and forth with weapons. They must have been given weapons <...> and felt their power. I can say for sure that they were Russians because I talked to them as I walked, I talked to them as I passed by. And when I came home, I told my son... And he said, “Mom, are you crazy? He has a gun, he can shoot you, and that's it.” I can't tell you how much I wanted to provoke them. And I remember our Maryna from Sloviansk, she also said, “I had a similar experience, too. I would put on an embroidered shirt, get on my bike, and ride around the square.” That's where they were, can you imagine? That's the kind of protest we had. — What did you tell them, what did you talk to them about? — I was swearing. And they were swearing at me.. — Were you not afraid? — As I said, I wasn't afraid. I just wanted to provoke them, that's all. I wasn't afraid. I just didn't think that there could be any consequences. Because I was cursing them as I walked along.
You could feel it. We even prepared the children for this. We told them that when they went to school, they should look for places to hide in case of emergency. Plast [Ukrainian Scouting organization] even has a first aid course. And how to behave and what to turn off at home. How to remind parents not to forget to turn off everything there, what documents to take with them. We told them all this and prepared the children for this. And when this war started, it was just... It hit me early on, I thought, “Oh, my God, what is this?”. I [went] straight to the window and thought it was a storm... And then I thought, “No, it's not a storm, it's war." I sat down on the bed and thought, "What should I do? Should I wake my son up or let him sleep?" I sat for a while and then woke him up. I said, “Vova, the war has begun”. I started crying. I realized that my child would go to war again.
Oh, I've already told you that as our procession approached, the Lenin statue was being knocked down. He was tilting, tilting. We immediately ran, everyone ran up close to it. We were so happy, everyone was hopping, jumping, rejoicing that they had finally gotten rid of this Lenin. He was so hollow. We were very happy then. I say: it's a good thing that no one knew that he was going to be toppled. Otherwise, they would have definitely stood there and prevented him from being taken down. But it was taken down, and then later, they painted the coat of arms of Ukraine there. They tried so hard not to step on it, to steer clear of it. Back in 2014, during that period, the poles were painted blue and yellow. We would get together on our days off, even after work, and go and paint them. Although I was told at work, “What does this painting of poles mean?”. We were pleased that it looked nice. Secondly, we wanted people to see that this is Ukraine.
Natalia Popova is an engineer, Plast educator, and volunteer. She was born in 1960 in the Donetsk region. At the age of five, she lost her mother, brother, and sister in an accident, so she studied at a boarding school. She mastered the profession of a floriculturist, after which she was assigned to the Novokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant. She worked there for 46 years, rising from a gardener to a first-category engineer. In the 2000s, because of her son’s interest in Plast, she became an educator at the local branch of the national Scouting organization. This helped her through the loss of her husband. In her group, she paid a lot of attention to nature, introducing the non-stereotypical Donetsk region to the Plast members. In the spring of 2014, when Kramatorsk was captured by the “DPR” militants, she participated in pro-Ukrainian rallies. During the battles for Kramatorsk, she left the city for a short time. Upon returning, she started volunteering by weaving camouflage nets. After the start of the full-scale invasion, she moved to Lviv, where she lives and volunteers now, in the spring of 2024, waiting for her son to return from the war.
