“The city freed me, I met my mother”: how families separated by war reunite in Donbass

Validol and Masik

"Father, shameless!

What a surprise, what a Ksyusha!”

Irina Kropivka, a dark-haired, smiling woman, wails in front of a car that has stopped at the house.

My friend is father Leonid, he is driving a car.

In the passenger seat is Ksyusha, aka Maksyusha, as his parents called him in childhood, the son of Irina.

Maksim, a serious bearded man, is a signalman in a howitzer artillery battery of the Armed Forces of the Luhansk People’s Republic.

He saw his family for the first time in eight years and two months.

Maxim went to defend Donbass after the House of Trade Unions was burned down in Odessa on May 2, 2014.

“I am generally from the Donetsk region, but I lived in Odessa for about a year, I know people from there.

Yes, that's not the point.

You just can't shoot people!

he is indignant.

“When I found out about the arson, I tore my Ukrainian passport into two parts out of emotion.

Then, however, he glued it together, because he had to somehow move around the country.

Tried to leave on May 3, 4.

The buses were packed.

On May 5, I found a car and drove to Donetsk, and from there to Slavyansk.”

Mom did not even have time to hug her son goodbye.

“I was walking from the night shift, and he and his friends got into the car and waved to me.

I dial him: “Son, what is this ?!”

He told me: “Mom, wait for me with a victory on the tank,” Irina recalls.

According to Maxim's mother, the upbringing of the border guard dad had an effect: “My husband always said that it was important to protect the Motherland, the family.

So is the son."

• RT

At the beginning of the war, Maxim had the call sign Validol: "Because people said that I was very calm myself and I act the same way on others."

But for the past five years, his colleagues have called him Masik.

He was in the people's militia of Donbass, a military correspondent on the Novorossiya TV channel, and now serves as a radiotelephonist.

They kept in touch with the family through Father Leonid, who is Maxim's uncle.

It was possible to talk on the phone with relatives once every few years - before the meeting, Masik had last heard his mother's voice four years ago.

“I was very worried that the family would be in danger because of this.

My brother was called to the SBU more than once, put off the bus, and they told me hello.

Some kind of punitive detachments, mordovorots came to his house, staged a pogrom, ”continues Maxim.

"Almost fainted"

According to Irina, a family lives in a neighboring village that finds itself in a similar situation.

The son also went to the militia.

“They staged a mask show for the parents, took them to the SBU, kept them there for a week.

People were beaten, scared.

I met them later, each one slowly spoke about his pain.

We, two mothers, sat and cried, ”recalls the woman.

For all neighbors and acquaintances, Maxim went to work in another city.

“It is difficult when there is no one to even share your experiences with.

She held on, cried and spoke out only when she came to her mother and father, ”says Irina.

Since it was not safe to stay in her native village, Irina moved in with her brother for a while.

It was there that Father Leonid organized a surprise meeting when it became known that the command would let Max go to his family for a couple of days.

• RT

“He said: “Get ready, there will be guests, Ksyusha will come, make crab salad, herring under a fur coat,” recalls Irina.

- And I didn’t even compare that these are Maxim’s favorite dishes!

I wonder: what kind of Ksyusha, why should we meet?

When she saw her son, she could not believe her eyes.

I almost lost consciousness, stunned, I ask: “Son, is it true or an illusion?”

He let me calm down, he was afraid that he would take my heart.

The RT correspondent asks what Maxim did first of all when he was at home - maybe he took a hot shower or finally slept on a comfortable bed?

He replies slightly bewildered: “Near my mother I sat inseparably.

They talked until one in the morning, woke up at half past four in the morning - and continued to talk.

Irina continues: “I am proud of my son.

He left as a boy, came back as a strong and very smart man, such a serious uncle.

But like, probably, all mothers in the world, she cannot help but add: “We were sitting with Maxim, I say:“ Son, you are already 32 years old, you are not married yet, your mother wants grandchildren.

And he: “Until all this is over, there can be no talk of a family.

I don't want the kids to suffer."

And I understand, of course, I want them to grow up in a happy country with a normal future.”

"Living in Hope"

“For many years I was in positions opposite my native Svetlodarsk, 4 km away.

From the hillock where we stood, I could see my sister's balcony.

But I couldn't come home.

So these 4 km turned out to be eight years long for me, ”says Sergey.

The 46-year-old employee of the People's Militia Department of the LPR worked for 20 years in security before the outbreak of hostilities in 2014.

“When the Maidan happened, I was on vacation.

I never went to work after that,” he says.

- We in the Cossacks, where I am a member, have gathered a council.

We decided to resist the "Maidan", which supported the views of Nazism, fascism.

In April 2014, checkpoints were set up, including at the Uglegorsk TPP.

On July 20, he was shelled, I came to my parents at the dacha and said that I was forced to leave the city.

It was then that Sergei saw his father for the last time.

“Dad died in 2018.

I didn’t attend his funeral either,” he sighs.

- I could not even imagine that everything would drag on for eight years.

And all this time I lived in the hope that sooner or later we will enter the liberated Svetlodarsk.

Sergei communicated with his mother through third parties: he did not want to endanger her.

She told all her friends that her son was working in Surgut.

“For eight years, they came to me from the SBU, asked where my son was, demanded his phone number, persuaded me to tell him to come and surrender to them, since he had done nothing wrong,” recalls Sergey’s mother, 72-year-old Nadezhda .

Such a psychological attack.

It got to the point where I shuddered at every knock on the door.

Three years ago, she managed to see her son, Nadezhda continues: “I still dared, I came through Russia to the Crimea, my grandson came with his bride and son, we rested together.”

"First to enter the city"

With the start of a special military operation on February 24, Sergey was seconded to the Debaltsevo direction.

“In front of Debaltseve is Svetlodarsk, so he was first in line for release.

The situation in the city was calm, it is still a little away from the clashes.

But nevertheless, there were arrivals from enemy mortars and tanks both to the outer houses that look at Artyomovsk and to the city center.

It is impossible to miss by chance to get into the middle of Svetlodarsk.

This is necessary with a specially mounted projectile to the city center.

In response to every defeat, the Ukrainian army will rage and take revenge on civilians, ”he is convinced.

“By the will of fate, I was the first of the Svetlodar residents to enter the city,” he adds.

The day when he crossed the threshold of his home for the first time in eight years, both Sergey and his mother remember very well.

“The day before, they tried to undermine our dam, we were all in shock.

Thunder, explosion, glass shattered.

There were no good premonitions, only horror and disappointment.

When my son knocked on the door, at first I did not hear him - I was in another room.

And when I saw, of course, there was so much joy.

I just hugged him and kissed him, ”Nadezhda shares. 

“I kept thinking about what to say, how the meeting would go.

I wanted to hold on, but still tears flowed, ”adds Sergey.

His wife Galiya also came to Svetlodarsk to Sergey.

“Any free time I try to be with my husband.

I consciously went to Svetlodarsk, although I understood that it was a big risk to drive along a road that no civilian could still travel due to shelling.

But my husband is my pride, protection, support.

I am with him in everything and everywhere,” she says.

The same as Sergey, Svetlodar residents who saw their parents years later turned out to be “probably about ten people at the moment,” the fighter continues: “Guys from Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Kharkov serve with me.

Colleagues called, congratulated, they say: "Well done, the city was liberated, I met my mother."

And I say: “Guys, the next one is Slavyansk, next you will meet your mothers.”