"Civilians return here at their own risk"

Before the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Kursk region, Andrei Gridin worked as a mechanic, then in the Ministry of Emergency Situations, and his wife Elena was the head of the Korenevsky village Council. They had a new house with a rich garden. They were raising four children, and life seemed to be working out. But in August last year, at one point, everything changed — Ukrainian militants came to their village. After leaving home, the couple firmly decided to defend their land and entered Bars-Kursk. Andrey took the call sign Slavyan, Elena became Athena. The Izvestia correspondent found out what makes a woman pick up a machine gun, and how the Kursk self-defense militia live.

In August 2024

In 2023, Elena, who had previously worked in the Korenevsky village Council, assumed the post of head. Andrey, who worked as an operator at a pig farm for many years, got a job as a firefighter in the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The Gridins had four children, three girls and a boy. The two younger ones were engaged in hand-to-hand combat, joined the regional national team, and won prizes.

Everything was fine, the couple recall. and overnight, everything changed on August 6, 2024.

— At first, nothing was clear. They called from Suji: "Something terrible is happening here. Leave!" says Elena. — On the very first day, we took the children to Kursk. They're back. They started a yard search, saying, "We need to evacuate." The installation was for two or three days, to wait out the threat. Over the next three days, people were taken out by car. And on the tenth, they wouldn't let us in, the military blocked the highway. The Ukrainian Armed Forces entered the village. On that day, more than 20 of our fellow villagers were killed by Ukrainian shells. One example is the shooting of a car in which a family was traveling. A father and a 20-year-old daughter were killed on the spot. The mother was injured and lay in a ditch for five days until she was found by volunteers.

On September 1, Andrey signed up for the newly organized Bars. He took the call sign Slavyan. He was appointed platoon commander.

Elena continued to hold her post, from time to time she went out to the village. She took out documents, fixed the destruction, drained water from heating pipes, clogged damaged windows, delivered humanitarian aid and gas cylinders.

She was also looking for missing people.

"We had four of them," she says. — We found the remains of two people. It's impossible to say for sure without an expert examination, but presumably one of them, a 50—year-old man, was riding a bicycle and got hit by a dump. The second one is a schoolboy. We haven't found the other two yet.

Elena resigned as head of the village council in January and signed a contract with Bars for six months. She chose the call sign — Athena. I handed over the cases to my deputy. He explains that there were several reasons for this decision. Firstly, I wanted to do something, but life stopped in the village — no shops, no pharmacies, no enterprises, no village council itself. Secondly, Barca needs people. Thirdly, the children's craving for the military profession was affected.

And, of course, one more thing — the spouse is nearby. They were given a separate room at the squad's location. They often go out on assignments together.

Elena-Athena joined the Barsa-Kursk team quickly. He shares that it's easy to work with men — everything is clear, concrete, without emotions, if a task is set, it should be completed.

It's not like that with women — it's like they still need to be persuaded to do something, she laughs.

The other side of the coin is that the stronger sex doesn't always take you seriously, whether you're the head or, as it is now, a fighter. It remains to treat this with humor and just do your job.

Elena and Andrey are currently serving in the village of Korenevo. And the village of the same name, which was led by a woman and where they have a house, is only five kilometers across the river.

"We live nearby, just around the corner," they say. — But you can't go back — there are FPV drones in the sky.

Despite the proximity of settlements, the situation in the village is more complicated than in the district center: drones appear more often in the sky, there is more destruction, transformer booths, power lines are broken, there is no water, gas.

At the beginning of the attack, the Ukrainian Armed Forces entered the village, but they failed to break through the bridges. Over the next few days, the enemy was knocked out.

As of today, 80 houses have been destroyed and more than 500 damaged. The UAV attacks, despite the successes at the front, do not stop (although there are fewer of them), the enemy is trying to hit the rear, keep in suspense.

In recent weeks alone, several private houses have been burned down in the Korenivka agglomeration of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a gas station, a store, and a crowd of people have been hit, and two civilians, including a child, have been injured.

Athena with a machine gun on her shoulder

Elena and Andrey, both with machine guns slung over their shoulders, perform the work that has become traditional for the defense forces — they patrol the streets with the military police, stand at reinforced checkpoints, help the sappers — they escort them through courtyards and fields, cover the sky during infrastructure repairs.

"Peaceful people come back here at their own risk," says Elena. — There are already several hundred civilians in the village all the time. There are almost a hundred in the village. He calls for fresh air, his yard, freedom — it's difficult to stay in the four walls of the air defense system, in constant standby mode. It's going to get warmer now, and maybe an even bigger influx will start. Although, I repeat, it is still very dangerous.

It is too early to talk about the return of a full-fledged peaceful life in the Korenevsky district. There are still many families who have not returned home yet.

Where there is a river, a garden, fishing

Andrey's parents managed to leave Sudzha in August, and today, as internally displaced persons, they received a certificate and bought a house near Kursk. There is a roof over your head, although your soul is not in place — you are drawn to a small homeland. Elena's mother and children live in a rented apartment. At first, the younger ones were constantly asking when to go back, to where the river, garden, fishing, bike, sports school were, especially the son missed. But they have already stopped.

And, as the Gridins say, apparently, they will not return to their village house (it has been preserved) all together, the enemy attack has plowed through both the present and the future too much. There is nowhere to go yet, the territory through which the Ukrainian Armed Forces have fought is a continuous exclusion zone. But there is no land more expensive for them.

Last March became a landmark for the region. There has been a fundamental turning point in the fighting, with the majority of the enemy squeezed out of the region. On March 8, Korenev residents celebrated the 82nd anniversary of the expulsion of the Nazis from their native area. Today, everyone is waiting for a new date — the complete liberation of the Kursk region from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.