Elena Shakhinova has been helping the front almost since the beginning of the Northern Military District.
She and her husband started with city volunteer groups: they participated in the collection and loading of humanitarian aid.
Four months ago, Elena’s husband went to the front line.
“My husband was assigned to the Kostroma regiment - the 299th Airborne Regiment.
The regiment turned out to be large—thousands of people, guys gathered from all over Mother Russia: Tatarstan, Siberia, Lipetsk, Kostroma, Ivanovo, a lot of guys from Crimea,” says RT’s interlocutor.
After her husband left for the Northern Military District zone, Elena continued to provide humanitarian aid.
She managed to unite various volunteer groups from all over the country, and a month ago she personally accompanied a humanitarian cargo to Lugansk for the first time.
Now Shakhinova, who has become the coordinator of the public organization “Russian World” in the Saratov region, has again gone to deliver the things that soldiers need most.
Elena, who received the call sign Zoya (in honor of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya), will celebrate International Women's Day in Lugansk.
“This time we are bringing more than 20 tons of humanitarian aid,” she shares.
— Another 1 ton was prepared by the girls in Rostov.
We are driving a truck, plus a gazelle.
This time we are bringing a lot of food and medicine.
Emphasis on medicine, because such a request has been received.”
According to Elena, on this trip she will have to make flights directly to the front line - before that she had not been to the contact line.
Upon arrival, she will meet her husband - he will help her unload the truck with humanitarian cargo.
Initially, Elena’s husband was against her going to the war zone, but he was not surprised when his wife nevertheless went to Lugansk with humanitarian aid.
© Photo from personal archive
“My husband knows that I will never pass by someone else’s misfortune.
He says, “I knew that soon you would be by my side.”
I am one of those women whose husband is in front, and I will stand nearby, handing out cartridges.
Instead of cartridges, now it’s humanitarian aid for me,” says Elena.
Searches for missing persons
On her last trip to Lugansk, Elena Shakhinova not only delivered humanitarian aid to military personnel, but also helped relatives of SVO participants find their loved ones who were missing at the front.
The idea arose spontaneously: Elena began to receive calls from friends asking to find out about the fate of relatives who had not been in touch.
Then Shakhinova decided to visit the Lugansk military hospital.
“I met the head physician of the hospital in Lugansk and explained everything to him.
They say to me: “We have nine floors of wards here, who will go around them all?”
I said I would do it myself - I had two free days.
As a result, nine people were found, although their relatives knew nothing at all about their fate and could not contact them.
One, as it turned out, died, all the rest are alive,” Shakhinova recalls.
© Photo from personal archive
Since then, Elena has been searching for missing soldiers.
This work takes a lot of moral strength, especially if the family has to report that a person has died.
The reaction of relatives to the tragic news can be the most unexpected - Elena has more than once encountered screams and insults from relatives who do not want to accept the fact of the death of a loved one.
“I had a case when I told the wife of a military man about his death.
I still remember with a lump in my throat how she shouted into the phone: “He couldn’t die, he promised us he’d come back!”
She is survived by three children.
She couldn't accept this situation.
The denial was terrible.
I took it all to heart because I put myself in the shoes of these people.
But in any case, the bitter truth is better than the painful unknown in which you live, believing in some miracle,” Elena is convinced.
On the eve of her current trip to Lugansk, about 70 people approached Elena with requests to find missing loved ones.
According to Shakhinova, she tries to process some applications remotely - for example, if we are talking about employees of the 299th Airborne Regiment, in which her husband is a member.
She will have to find out the fate of the rest of the military on the spot.
“Behind our shoulders are children”
Elena's husband is a driver of the highest category; he has not served before.
There was no question of resisting her husband’s desire to volunteer for the North Military District, Shakhinova recalls.
© Photo from personal archive
“This topic is sacred in our family.
The husband’s decision to go to the front was based on the understanding that this is the Motherland, this is a duty, this is sacred to all of us, something that must be defended.
I really realized that if I have to, I myself will take up a weapon.
Because we have our children behind us,” Elena emphasized.
She does not deny that she is afraid for her husband.
The children are also worried - the couple has three of them.
The Shahinovs’ eldest son is already 22 years old and studies at a military institute in Moscow.
My daughter is in tenth grade; last year she graduated from cadet school and took the oath.
The Shakhinovs' youngest son is now 12 years old.
According to Elena, the worst thing about military operations is their impact on children.
RT’s interlocutor claims that the children of fighters begin to grow up much earlier, become more responsible and reasonable.
She sees this in her own sons and daughters, and in their classmates, whose fathers also went to the front.
Due to the fact that Elena devotes most of her free time to the front, she is unable to remain as involved in the lives of the children as before.
“I am very, very limited in time now.
I explain to my sons and daughter that our failed conversation today is the saved life of some fighter.
And, thank God, the children understand this,” Elena concluded.