The good fortune: how Kursk volunteer girls help the front
Another thousand kilometers are on the speedometer. In the back there are personalized parcels, homemade cakes, warm sweaters, medicine, stoves, walkie-talkies, copters. They are constantly moving around the frontline areas — the chicken girls from the volunteer movement "We help our people." They load it themselves, they carry it themselves. For the fourth year in a row. One of those on whose shoulders rests the most important sector of the front, the humanitarian one. They explain that it is already impossible to stop for at least a day and exhale. How a large river of help is formed from thin streams is described in the Izvestia report.
From all over the country
Kursk. The basement of the former design studio is packed to the brim, up to the ceiling, with boxes and bags: some arrive, others decrease. The parcels have inscriptions reflecting the entire wide geography of our country — from Sakhalin to St. Petersburg, from Khabarovsk to Ryazan. There are six girls who run the place. Everyone has a family, children, and a job. But, as they say, after the start of the special military operation, and especially after the enemy's attack on the Kursk region, their main life was concentrated here — in this basement and in continuous roads.
Parcels, medicines, things and gifts for one of the medical units
The eldest in the team is Elena Boldinova, a beautiful woman with a golden braid. A native of Yevpatoria. The destination today is Bolshesoldatsky district, she explains. There, at the agreed place, you need to meet with the doctors of the two detachments and give them medicines, tools, and gifts.
Elena Boldinova and Natalia Borodina - waiting for the fighters at the agreed point
We load the Gazelle. In the back, packages with the inscriptions "Pancakes from Tanya", "Apple pie from Lyubov Vasilyevna", "Hawthorn from Alexander Anatolyevich" stand out touchingly — these are the goodies that the hearty Kuryans brought here themselves yesterday. Several packages from temple communities from different cities. Organizations, kindergartens, and schools have collected something. The boxes contain fleece sweatshirts, blankets, bone pillows for the wounded, food, sweets, a dry shower, warming ointments, gas cylinders.
Sponsored detachments
Let's get started. Elena is next to me. Natalia Borodina, also from Crimea, is driving from Feodosia.
Parcels come from all over Russia
The Gazelle is brand new. An electronic warfare system is installed on its roof. The number of doors is four, the number of seats is seven, so that you can sleep during long-distance trips: every month the girls also ride in LDNR and the Zaporozhye region, with the same humanitarian aid, for 4-5 days. The car is a gift from the President of Russia. In the spring, Elena took part in a round table with the leadership of the region and the Popular Front, at which Vladimir Putin unexpectedly appeared (no one was warned). After that meeting, the team was given a new "workhorse" — the old one, also a Gazelle, had completely fallen into disrepair. It's easier now. And more reliable. And safer.
Unloading humanitarian aid
"It all started in 2022," Lena shares the story of the movement as we head to our destination. — In February, a flood of refugees from the war zone poured into Kursk. It became clear that something had to be done to help. Then it was the turn to support the military. Together with Elena Shishkina, a Muscovite, we created the "Help our People" community, which today has 2.3 thousand people. Fighters leave requests. We place them in a group. The response is coming from all over the country. We buy something on the spot. People send something by Russian Post, a free shipping program to border regions.
The "Help our People" team is one of those who are holding the humanitarian front today.
It is noteworthy that all positions can always be closed (and quite quickly), says the interlocutor. Although sometimes there are seemingly impossible requests: expensive sniper scopes, laptops, generators, motorcycles. The other day, for example, the fighters wrote: "The wheels of the cannon were hit by shrapnel, not on the move. Help me if you can!" They put up an ad, and the next day the man brought the necessary wheels.
—Until 2024, we thought we were working hard," adds Natalia, the helmsman, laughing. — And then we realized that it was just a warm-up. After the attack on the Kursk region, the number of sponsored detachments increased significantly. But the number of people willing to contribute has also increased.
And it's light, and it hurts
Despite the irregular schedule and workload (you often have to return home after midnight), my fellow travelers' eyes are burning, the road is a joy for them. And no wonder: every trip brings so many benefits and bright mutual emotions. However, they explain, the positive here is closely intertwined with the painful and bitter: many of whom they became friends with are no longer alive.
— Once we had a meeting, she fell into my soul, — says Elena. — We came to the stormtroopers for the New Year with gifts and offered them to record a video for their relatives. And one guy — mobilized, Yura, call sign Kuzbass — confessed that he had no one to send to. He stood out from everyone, as if he was drawn to warmth, a woman's heart feels it. It turned out he was an orphan. We returned to Kursk, talked about him in our chat, and the girls from the Amur region collected personalized parcels for him and wrote letters to make him feel like he had a family. The next time we visited the guys, it turned out that he had died while attacking Suju.
The most necessary things for fighters
One day, Elena was approached by military acquaintances: she had to help take her grandmother out of the newly liberated Zaoleshenka. The old lady flatly refused, even though she was on her last legs. They found the phone number of her son, who lived in Kursk, and he wrote down a message for his mother: "Please come back. I'm waiting for you!" And we drove to the village. The house where Grandma lived was damaged by shells, she herself was lying under a pile of blankets, not moving. The first thing she said when she saw the guests: Lena showed her the video of her son and took her by the arm.: "I must." The old lady got up and began to cry. And then I couldn't stop crying the whole way. When she met her son, she whispered to the girls, "Thank you..."
A batch of military first-aid kits was sent by the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers from the city of Krasnoturinsk
There were also funny cases. We went on New Year's Eve to congratulate the fighters in their positions. A military driver, call sign Zhora, was dressed up in a Santa Claus costume. Elena is the Snow Maiden. They stopped by and gave gifts to some, to others, to others. And the fourth, when fairy-tale characters knocked on their dugout, they were scared. "Who are you?" Zhora was shouted. "Santa Claus," he replied. "Who are they? Who let them in here?! — The guys were alarmed. "Why wasn't they warned?" "Santa Claus does not warn!" came the firm reply. It ended well. All the soldiers of the unit said that it was the best holiday in all three years.
New roads
We arrive at the place. We hide the car under a chestnut tree. Overturned Zhiguli trucks are piled up nearby: a year ago, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were only 3 km away from here. Explosions can be heard from afar: Suja is there. Elena and Natasha sit on the sacks and bend over the phone, trying to contact the recipients. Some suddenly report that they will not get out: "It's dangerous! The road is being specifically covered." The girls agree that they will take their parcels to an adjacent unit, and they can pick them up from there.
Lena and Natalia have been partners since 2022.
The second one appears an hour later, in a passenger car with a trailer. They thank me very much, they say, they didn't even count on it. Homemade cakes made by Tanya and Lyubov Vasilyevna evoke special emotions.
"Thank you," says the major of the medical service, the call sign Highlander, to the camera, a video report from each humanitarian trip and feedback are mandatory. "Thank you for understanding everything!"
As we drive back, Elena Boldinova shares that during the raid, she received several new messages from military personnel at once: "Is there an opportunity?", "Urgently needed!", "Please queue up." I would like to point out that despite the heavy burden and the fatigue on their faces, the girls' eyes are still burning. There are new challenges and new roads ahead.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
