"There is no fear, there is only a goal"
"Our support" is what the residents of the Kursk region call the community "Help to the Korenevites". A symbiosis of forces between civil society activists and the military. The founder and head of the group is Kuryanka Maria Skrob. In 2024, after the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the region, her team evacuated more than 800 civilians from the battle zone. When the attacks were repelled, they found the bodies of 40 missing countrymen and did not stop searching. Maria herself lost her mother, father and grandmother during those events — they burned down in their own house. She identified her mother's body by a titanium pin in her spine when she was raking through the ashes. Last year, Maria spoke at a meeting of the UN Security Council with a report on the crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk region. The Izvestia correspondent and the activist made a humanitarian trip to the dangerous border area.
From dawn to dusk
We leave at dawn, there's a lot to do in a day. The tasks for today are to visit the village of Blagodatnoye, where it is necessary to arrange the collection of vegetables for the military. Transfer to the masknetwork division. And a visit to the ruined village of Kauchuk, where there are only five residents left.
Masha Skrob has such routes every other day. Yesterday, for example, she was in the Korenevo district center (the return of civilians here is still not recommended), delivering generators. Ukrainian wings circled over the village, tracking prey. On the way back, in the village of Zhadino, she witnessed an attack by such a drone — it struck near an apartment building, windows flew out, and walls were cut.
As an activist, Maria proved herself during the Ukrainian Armed Forces attack on the Kursk region. Before that, she worked as a cosmetologist (and continues to do so), and was engaged in sports tourism. In 2024, she sheltered 18 refugees from her native Korenevsky district in Kursk. Then she promptly organized a group of mutual assistance on social networks. A team of like-minded volunteers gathered, and contacts with the military were established. After a while, Maria began to be invited to work groups under the regional government to resolve certain issues. The last one is to work out the principle of compensation for cars burned and stolen by Ukrainian militants. The number of such statements from victims in the Korenevsky district has exceeded a thousand.
The closer we get to the border strip, the more often we see specific black "marks" on the asphalt — until recently there were damaged and burnt-out cars in these places. We notice a mobile firing group hidden in the landing on a pickup truck with a machine gun, its task is to hunt UAVs. As luck would have it, the Bulat red signal immediately starts flashing, notifying that there is a drone within a radius of 1-2 km. In order not to be distracted from the steering wheel, Masha monitors the situation on the screen of the electronic bracelet (over the next few hours, five wings, an FPV, and even a Baba Yaga will fly past us).
We stop at the traffic police post, where guys in bulletproof vests are on duty. "Oleg, come here!" my traveling companion calls one of the guards, a member of her volunteer team. And then, casually, without any ceremony, he presents him with the medal "Defender of the Kursk region."
—The reward has finally found a hero," she explains, laughing. — This year, we managed to ensure that all the guys in my group — 18 people — were awarded this honorary badge.
Potatoes, bread, vitamins
The first stop is Blagodatnoe, the temple of Elijah the Prophet. Its rector, Father Valery Fursov, came to serve here a quarter of a century ago. The church was in a state of disrepair at that time. I have been repairing and restoring with builders for many years. As soon as the finishing touches were put, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked. Fortunately, not a single shell hit the territory of the parish. At first, dozens of refugees lived in the temple itself. Someone is forced to stay within these walls to this day: there is nowhere to return to.
Maria makes arrangements with the priest that the locals will bring him vegetables (leftovers from the last harvest), canned food, frozen berries, honey, so that they can then be sent to units and hospitals. Extra potatoes and vitamins will never hurt the fighters. And right in front of us, compassionate residents deliver the first batch of food here — four bags of potatoes, two bags of beets, onions, carrots, a box of eggs, and also mashed strawberries and currants.
The next item is a military unit. We're handing over the camouflage nets to the guys. They are sent to Masha all the way from Vologda. "Vologda lace makers," she jokes. Once the Northerners contacted her themselves and offered to help. Since then, up to 100 units of priceless material have been delivered monthly.
We make a detour and look into the village of Rubber on the border with the Sudzhansky district (previously, coca-sagyz containing this very rubber was grown here), to visit a local resident, 63-year-old Sasha Zolotin. A former tractor driver, and in recent years a stoker and caretaker at school, he is one of five who returned to his native village.
"A house is not just a hut," he points to a dwelling that has been destroyed by hits. — And the air, the earth, the trees are these!
In 2024, the militants approached the Rubber end-to-end, tried to storm it five times, but failed: they were thrown back. Now there are no shops, no medical center, no school, a dead zone. However, Sasha, along with the neighbors, is trying his best to prove the opposite. She is persistently repairing the house, harvesting firewood. He's got three young bulls and he's not going to stop there.
Two weeks of searching
According to official data, almost 500 civilians are missing in the Kursk region, 46 of them in the Korenevsky district. Over the past year and a half, Maria and her associates have found four dozen bodies.
Maria herself lost her closest friends during those events — her mother, father, and grandmother.
"In the village of Krasnooktyabrskoye," Masha shares, instantly darkening her face. — We didn't have time to leave…
My daughter kept in touch with them until August 13. The parents wrote that the Ukrainian militants were shooting at the gates, causing fear, stealing unattended cars, and staying in a boarding school. Communication was interrupted after the 13th. Masha bought a mavik drone, arranged with the military to allow them to fly to the village to see what was there. It was not possible for a long time: the electronic warfare jammed the connection. On September 10, they managed to break through, and the camera showed that the house was intact. Krasnooktyabrskoye was released the next day. However, the place of the house was already ashes. Maria says that his gunmen burned him down, and his parents were most likely shot.
"For two weeks, I came to the place with my guys and dug and searched," she recalls. — Drones were circling around, but there was no fear, just a goal. One day, a husky dog ran nearby, began sniffing under the slate, I lifted it, and there was the rest of the titanium system that was inserted into my mother's spine after an accident. She shouted to the others, "Stop! I found it...". There, at her feet, were other charred remains. In total, we collected three small bags of burnt bones.…
In August 2025, Maria was invited to speak at a meeting of the UN Security Council with a report on the crimes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She told about the missing, about the recorded cases of war crimes. Some countries expressed concern about what they had heard. Representatives of the United States, Britain and France said that the arguments were not convincing.
When I ask her how she manages to cope with what she's been through, and also not to get tired, not to burn out under the daily burden of responsibility, my interlocutor answers:
— Before his release in March 2025, he managed to exist in a low-emotion mode. Apparently, the psyche was putting up a barrier. And then it started. It's very hard at times. Saves the movement. And that's the responsibility.
Maria admits: sometimes you want to give up everything. But a new task appears. Or another batch of help arrives. And it becomes clear to her: it's too early to stop, you need to continue.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
