"I'll get you even a spaceship if you need it!". Stories of three volunteers killed by Russia

Maryna Romanovska – a shop assistant from Beryslav, Kherson Region who spent several months under the occupation where she took care of those in need and became the first to bring humanitarian aid to the liberated town; she was blown up on an anti-tank mine. Oleksandr Konov – an activist and a cheesemaker-entrepreneur from Luhansk Region, helped the army in 2014, and in 2022; he was shot in his wheelchair in his house. Zhanna Kameneva - a petite mother of two from Kyiv Region; evacuated people in the first days of the full-scale war in her car; Russian soldiers shot at Zhanna`s van from machine guns and an infantry military vehicle. These are the stories of three volunteers who died helping others.

Maryna Romanovska. "We have lost the most precious treasure"

36-year-old Maryna Romanovska lived in the town of Beryslav in Kherson Region. She had a harmonious relationship with her husband Mykola. The couple had two children – 16-year-old Karyna and 10-year-old Makar. Her house was encircled by roses. Maryna was fond of this flower. She and Mykola also kept doves and exotic breeds of chickens, they had dogs and cats. Maryna dreamed of her first trip abroad – to Turkey. She worked in Beryslav as a shop assistant. Her employer was proud of his responsible worker.

Maryna Romanovska and her husband Mykola, from the Romanovsky family archive

From the first day of the full-scale war, Maryna became a volunteer. She delivered meals that other volunteers cooked for powerty-stricken, disabled, and large families. She made an arrangement with local farmers that they would bring milk and vegetables into town and distribute the produce to the needy for free.

Maryna`s husband who supported her in everything recalls that their house had turned into a volunteering hab: business owners brought sugar and groats, diapers and baby food, people from the villages brought preserves and fresh produce. It was important because Kherson Region had been having an extremely difficult humanitarian situation from the start of the full-scale war because of the constant shellings and the advance of the russian troops.

[BANNER1]Maryna worked until afternoons and then gave out humanitarian help to people in need until night. She worked until the last person. And there were dozens: from 80 to 120 every day. Volunteering took from 5 to 12 hours per day. Her daughter Karyna says: "Mom felt another`s plight. She couldn`t stand to see children, old people, disabled suffer".

On the 9th of March 2022, Beryslav was occupied by the russians. Later they started giving out their own humanitarian aid. "We would rather starve than take anything from them" – Maryna snapped.

"Maryna was offended to see local sellers peddle their goods for hicked-up prices or when someone was stealing the humanitarian aid. Maryna found out the details and brought her unscrupulous neighbors to light. She fought with them. She could not do otherwise because she had principles", – says friend Ola Kasyanova.

Olha Kasyanova, Maryna Romanovska`s friend, photo by Olha Kasyanova

Collaborators turned Maryna in to the occupation authorities and one day in late April three vans drove up to the Romanovsky`s house. Russian soldiers came out.

They took Maryna and Mykola`s children to the garden and pointed their guns at them. Meanwhile, the others demanded from the volunteer to show them her Ukrainian symbols, weapon, a deed to the store – they thought she was the owner and not just a shop clerk. They ordered her to praise Russia on video. Otherwise, they would "take her to the basement". Our proposition: "take someone to basement" means that the occupation forces, both soldiers and Kremlin-appointed authorities, take people, mainly those who are pro-Ukraine, to so-called basements where locals cannot see them to question them under torture

Maryna refused. Then the occupiers put sacks over her and her husband`s heads and put them into one of the vans where they continued the interrogation and took the couple "to the basement". They beat Mykola and threatened Maryna with kidnapping her children. Soon her captors uploaded a video on YouTube where a miserable tormented woman sweeps leaves in the park and under duress says how glad she is that "Russia has come to stay in Kherson forever".

After that fewer people approached Maryna for help. They were scared. Maryna too was cautious but she did not stop helping others. The volunteering hub was moved to her friend`s house which was secretly visited by the locals.

Maryna`s childrens were too afraid to set foot past their yard. The eldest daughter did not leave the house at all.

On the 24th of August 2022, the Ukrainian Independence Day, Maryna donned yellow and blue clothes and went into town with her friends who supported her flashmob. The town citizens congratulated each other in whispers. The occupiers glared at them but did not say anything.

Maryna Romanovska with her daughter Karyna and son Makar, from the Romanovsky's family archive 

The Romanovsky family wanted to go to the Ukrainian-controlled territory but since they were specifically watched by the russian occupiers they only managed to flee on the 29th of August. Mykola`s father and brother stayed behind to look after the house and pets. Maryna, Mykola, and their children went to Dnipro. They received an invitation from Mykola`s childhood friend Bohdan Demus. When the family saw the first Ukrainian block post and heard "Good evening" in Ukrainian Maryna burst into tears and asked the soldier to shake her hand.

In Dnipro, the couple started working as attendants at a gas station. They spent all of their free time at the volunteering center of their friend Bohdan Demus. They sorted and delivered humanitarian aid all over the region.

On the 11th of November 2022 Ukrainian Army liberatated Beryslav. Maryna was elated and wanted to be the first to bring aid to her neighbors.

On November 18 a white van loaded with 10 tonnes of goods left Dnipro. Bohdan Demus was in the driver`s seat. The Romanovsky couple sat next to him. Near the village of Zmiivka in Kherson Region they saw that the road had been blown up and all the cars went down into the field to go around it. Mykola got out of the van to watch the line of cars. In three minutes an explosion hit. The van hit an anti-tank mine that had been previously driven over by hundreds of wheels. It reacted to the heavy van.

[BANNER2]Mykola saw the explosion – the driver fell out of the entrance, the door was blown off, the roof was gone and his wife was thrown up three meters into the air and 10 meters away from the car. Bohdan was alive with a damaged spine but Maryna did not survive. Her chest was torn open. Mykola himself was wounded and contused alongside three other people who were struggling nearby to push their car out of the mud. A medic gave first aid to the driver. They put him in a car to get him to the hospital and laid Maryna beside him – to take her to the morgue.

Mykola buried his wife in the Beryslav central cemetery next to his mother. He said to his children on November 20: "I`m sorry I couldn`t protect your mother, we have lost the most precious treasure".

After the tragedy, Mykola keeps volunteering. He works three days a week and tries to spend more time with his children. Taking care of his son and daughter helps him deal with grief. The youngest boy Makar has taken the loss the hardest, he withdraws into himself, cries. Doctors diagnosed him with a heart condition. They cannot go back home because Beryslav is being heavily shelled. Their house is damaged by shell fragments. Still, when they will be able to return and if Maryna`s grave is still intact Mykola wants to erect a monument dedicated to his wife: on one side she will be portrayed as a mother and on the other – as a volunteer. In memory of her mother, Karyna wears a ring that was on Maryna when she died. Her family also made a plea to give Maryna Romanovska the title of the Hero of Ukraine.

Maryna Romanovska with her daughter Karyna and son Makar, from the Romanovsky`s family archive 

"Mom was a great patriot of Ukraine, everybody says that, and that they didn`t know a kinder person. So many people reacted to her death. Mom was a real Volunteer. Someone who lived for others. Not expecting anything in return but a smile or a thank you. – says Maryna Romanovska`s daughter.

Oleksandr Kononov. "It was his big achievement too that Luhansk Region put up such an active resistance" 

18 years ago Oleksandr Konov from Luhansk Region lost his right arm and left leg in a sawmill accident. He survived a clinical death and received a status of "a person with a grade I disability". On medical grounds, people like him cannot even take care of themselves. But Oleksandr did not just learn to move on his own, he fulfilled his dream of keeping goats and making several kinds of goat cheese, he named his company "Sanych`s Cheeses". "Sanych" is what his friends called him.

Oleksandr Kononov

Photo THE UKRAINIANS

His friend Kateryna Kotlyarevska recalls that Kononov didn't behave as you would expect from an amputee. "I could tell him: "Sasha, here are your slippers" when he came to visit me and my family. I used to forget he didn`t have a leg because of the way he acted: strong, uninhibited, positive, energetic".

"Everyone loved him, he had an excellent sense of humor. You felt absolutely comfortable around him, so cool. Such a powerful personality. I used to say to him: "Sanya, you don`t have an arm and a leg, and I can`t imagine what you would`ve done if you still had them. You would`ve moved the planet", – says Oleksandr Kononov`s friend Ruslan Horovy.

Ruslan Horovy and Oleksandr Kononov

photo from Oleksandr Kononov`s Facebook profile

When in 2014 Russia occupied parts of Luhansk and Donetsk Regions, Oleksandr and his wife Victoria brought Ukrainian tropps everything they needed to the frontline with their car. Oleksandr used to say: "We can`t just sit at home". The couple even sold their wedding rings to buy two body armor plates.

Sanych said about himself: "I used to think that people in the East and the West of Ukraine were different but the war has brought everyone together. Suddenly at the age of 47 years old, I felt that Ukraine which had meant nothing to me before was my country and that I was a Ukrainian. And it was important for me to show that Luhansk Region was also Ukraine". He began wearing a cossack forelock and Ukrainian traditional embroidered shirts – vyshyvankas.

[BANNER3]In the summer of 2014, Kononov`s van approached an enemy block post by mistake. The couple spent 98 days in captivity. Oleksandr was beaten and humiliated, he later recalled: "And I was trying to convert those who led me to my execution back to Ukraine". After their release as part of the prisoner exchange, Oleksandr moved first to Zhytomyr Region to continue his business there and then to Cherkasy Region. After the captivity, he kept volunteering. He used to say he did not need much: "I live in a small house, receive some disability benefits, make my own cheese and I want for nothing. I can even give some away. I`m a happy man".

When his business did not work out, Kononov came back to Luhansk Region in 2020. He had already been divorced for 5 years. He moved in with his mother in Borivske near Severodonetsk. After the 24th of February when the full-scale war broke out 54-years old Kononov told his friends: "We united ourselves against the enemy even more and now we are becoming a nation".

In the first days of the war he planned to evacuate with his mother but when Ukrainian troops were moved to the village and started to build defensive positions to protect the area Oleksandr changed his min. He decided to stay and send his mother away at the first opportunity. He introduced himself to soldiers, helped them settle in the abandoned houses owners of which he knew. He told Kateryna Kotlyarevska that he brought soldiers Borshch and hand pies. Every day he and his 76-year-old mother cooked something in giant pots first in their kitchen while they still had gas and later – in the open oven outside. They bought the soldiers everything they needed. Kononov`s friend supported him in this and sent money to his bank account.

On March 1, Oleksandr`s daughter Nina gave birth to a girl in Kharkiv. He was overjoyed that despite the war life went on and his family grew.

Oleksandr Kononov

photo from Oleksandr Kononov`s Facebook profile

Horovy and his other friends begged him to flee, invited him to stay with them. Still, Oleksandr told them: "I`ve got to be here".

Oleksandr reassured his friends and loved ones that he and his mother were hiding from the shellings in the basement and that "our boys are hitting them good with artillery" in response to the enemy fire. It was not possible at that moment to get his mother out with volunteers.

On March 12 Kononov set out on foot towards Severodonetsk which is 12 km away from his village. He went to get cigarettes for the soldiers and medicine for his neighbors in particular medicine for people with diabetes. He spent the night at his relative`s place and on the next day returned. He caught a cold on the road. At home, his mother gave him hot milk and medicine. After dinner, he went to her sister`s house nearby. In the morning she looked out the window: the front door of her house was ajar. She ran there. Oleksandr sat in his wheelchair in his pajamas shot through a wet pillow that his killers used to muffle the sound. Sasha`s forelock was plucked out.

His nephew Kostyantyn Varfolomeyev believes that there were two killers: they found two cigarette butts, two sets of imprints. "The conversation probably was brief. Sanych snapped something at them and they didn`t delay with what they came for. Ukrainian soldiers lived within 200 meters and the killers were afraid of them. I don`t know who killed him but I know for sure that my uncle was killed for his stance", – says Kostyantyn.

Oleksandr Kononov was burried without a coffin at a local cemetery next to his family members.

His mother went to stay with her grandson Kostyantyn. She lived with his family for half a year, now she is in Poland with her eldest granddaughter Katya. Her faith in God and the support of her family help her deal with her grief. Her other son and daughter, her grandchildren all invite her to move in with them so she would not be alone and could look after her great-grandchildren. They taught her how to use YouTube and Viber, gave her a part of the garden so she could grow her favorite vegetables there.

Oleksandr`s loved ones collect photos of the killed volunteer, publications, and news footage with him for the family archive. They tell everyone they know about him and show them documentaries. When they will have an opportunity to reach the now-occupied Borivske they are planning on getting his things and photos out of there and putting on a headstone on his grave. Ruslan Horovy, a filmmaker, made two documentaries about his friend: "Ukrops of Donbas"Our proposition: "Ukrops" - a neologism and part of hate speech that appeared in 2014 and was spread by Russians as an offensive nickname for Ukrainians who support Revolution of Dignity, new government, pro-West political orientation and anti-Russia rhetoric. It is also used to describe people who took part in combat actions in the east of Ukraine (before the full-scale invasion) and those who fight for Ukraine's rights and territorial integrity since Russia occupied Crimea and parts of the east in 2014. and "Displaced" and is planning the third installment. He also petitioned to have a street named after Oleksandr Kononov.

"Every volunteer is a drop in the ocean and it is his big achievement too that Luhansk Region put up such an active resistance, – says Ruslan Horovy. – He actively preached his love for Ukraine and shared his position with others. For me, he was a carrier and a preacher of everything Ukrainian".

Kateryna Kotliarevska, the friend of the deceased Oleksandr Kononov, provided the photo 

"He was essentially a warrior, he didn`t fear death and died as a warrior. I can only imagine the strong profanities with which he greeted his firing squad. It`s a shame he didn`t have a grenade with him, he always wanted to take a couple of bastards with him when it would be his turn to meet death, – says his friend Kateryna Kotliarevska. – When society faces a big shit, one category of people flees, another one waits and observes who is going to do what, the third category marches into the deepest hell – these are our warriors. And the fourth category is those who do everything to support the third. These are the volunteers. They always end up where help is needed, they can`t do otherwise. Sasha was that kind of person".

Zhanna Kameneva. "She saved us from something horrible"

The burned-down van in which Zhanna Kameneva and her 3 passengers were in

Photo was provided by a friend of the family Bohdan Yavorsky

Until 2014 Zhanna and Hennadiy Kemenev from the town of Bucha near Kyiv had managed their own grocery store and dreamed of their own home while living in a communal apartment and raising two children: Mariyka and Oleksiy. Zhanna enjoyed gardening and cooking, her family especially loved her salads and cakes. In the summer the Kamenevs vacationed at Ukrainian seaside resorts, before the occupation they used to go to Crimea. They celebrated the 10th anniversary of their marriage in Cyprus.

[BANNER4]When Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014 Hennadiy went to fight. Zhanna first sent food and medicine supplies to the frontline and then told the volunteers she knew: "You are either taking me to Hena or I am going there myself". They had to take her along. Bohdan Yavorsky remembers his friend as a petite, slender mother of two who was bursting with energy. She was keen to help, to be needed. For eight years she had been going to the frontline in her own car, she helped one of the boarding schools for orphans in Luhansk Region. Even after her husband returned home for good in 2019 she continued to volunteer in the East of the country.

Zhanna Kameneva with volunteers, Bohdan Yavorsky is on the left

The photo was provided by Bohdan Yavorsky

On the 25th of February 2022, Hennadiy Kamenev returned to the Armed Forces. He is an artilleryman. He fought in battles for Kyiv and Irpin. Zhanna evacuated their children to her friend in Zhytomyr Region and returned to Bucha. For several days she gave out food supplies from her store and evacuated the locals. It took all of her time. Her husband told her to go back to Zhytomyr but she answered that her duty was to be of help here. The number of people she managed to get out of the intensively bombarded and threatened by the Russian advance towns around Kyiv is unknown. But definitely not less than 10. One of those saved by Zhanna is Olena Novichuk.

"On February 24 my children and I fled to my father in Vorzel, he had a basement. In 5 days we were out of food. Everyone was scared to go to us except for Zhanna and her friend Tamila. They brought fruit, eggs, canned meat, bread, cookies, chees. We could not believe our eyes, – recalls Olena. – On the 1st of March the situation worsened.

The way out of Vorzel was blocked, the bridge was mined. No one knew what and when to expect. The house was cold, the food supply wasn`t going to last long. The cell connection disappeared. We were afraid. There was a forest nearby and we could hear shooting and explosions, war planes were flying overhead. On the 2nd of March, I tried to call everybody I knew who could help. Everyone said no. Then I dialed Zhanna. Her friend Andriy picked up the phone, said that they were in Vorzel right now and that they would come in 30 minutes".

Three volunteers came to pick them up in Zhanna`s blue van. She seemed collected and did her job as a driver.

"At parting, I told the volunteer that I would never forget what she did for us and that I would like to see her when I come back. She smiled and said: "It`s nothing, don`t worry about it". Zhanna smiled all the time, she was level-headed. She and her friends were in a hurry to get someone else out because it was getting dark. That day we headed to the West of Ukraine and on the next – Russians entered Vorzel. They took people prisoners, murdered, raped. Zhanna saved us from something horrible. I think she was sent to us as a guardian angel", – says Olena Novichuk.

Novichuk Olena saved by Zhanna Kameneva

The photo was provided by Olena Novichuk

"I love you very much", – said Zhanna. That was the last time her husband heard her voice. Later, he received a text message: "Enemy tanks are coming towards us". An hour later, the phone was not answering.

On March 3 Zhanna told her husband on the phone that she was expecting some people to come and pick up the last goods at the shop. He asked her to sleep in the basement because the advancing Russian troops were shooting the passing houses through. On March 5 she called him in the morning and said that she had seen Russian vehicles in her street. He asked her to be careful and to get out.  "I love you very much", – said Zhanna. It was the last time he heard her voice. Later he received an sms-message: "Enemy tanks are coming". In an hour her phone was out of reach.

He was looking for his wife for a whole month, praying that she was captured, hiding in the basement, evacuated – as long as she was alive. The Armed Forces of Ukraine liberated Bucha on April 2 and Hennadiy himself passed a burned white van on the corner of Yablunska (later named the "road of death" after many bodies had been discovered there) and Vokzalna Streets for four days. He was looking for a blue van.

[BANNER5]It turned out that the fire was so intense it changed the color of Zhanna Kameneva`s car. Inside were the remains of four women. Zhanna, retiree Maria Ilchuk, 14-year-old Anya, and her mother Tamila Mishchenko. All that was left of Zhanna were fragments of her pelvic and spine, all that was left of a teenage girl was just a piece of red hair.

Hennadiy found out that her wife`s passengers decided to flee after seeing the atrocities committed by the occupiers in Bucha. Russian soldiers shot the van first from an infantry combat vehicle and then from their machine guns. Zhanna`s husband found a witness of the tragedy who managed to take a picture of the car when it still had been blue and Zhanna`s hand could be seen in the window. In 40 minutes the same witness took another picture. The car had gone white. The Russians gunned down an old woman near the van and a spark from the shooting ignited the fuel that was leaking from the car setting it ablaze.

Zhanna Kameneva`s funeral, her husband Hennadiy is the one with yellow roses

Photo was provided by Bohdan Yavorsky

Zhanna Kameneva was buried in the village of Mykulychi near Bucha. Her children who at the time were staying with their grandmother in Spain were hit hard by the loss of their mother. Hennadiy himself could not even talk about the tragedy for several months – the pain was too much, he was devastated.

"Although almost a year has gone by, it`s still very hard for all of us", – says Hennadiy who is serving near Kyiv. – The kids have already returned from abroad because they missed me, they wanted to see me. They live with their Grandpa, my father, and I take every opportunity to spend time with them, to take give them a ride to school or pick them up."

Every member of the Kamenev family has a photo of Zhanna, they always remember her and want to see their loved one be distinguished with a state award. Her husband has plans to install a monument on her grave. He wants to take care of their children`s education according to their plans made with Zhanna. 15-year-old Mariyka wants to become a criminologist and 13-year-old Oleksiy – a programmer.

"I have lost not only a beloved woman but a comrade-in-arms. She helped the army so much. There was nothing that I asked for and she couldn`t do. She smashed through concrete walls. She used to say: "No matter how hard it is going to be I will get you even a spaceship if you need one". Zhanna loved Ukraine and did not want to leave, her role as a volunteer is underrated. A lot of people wrote me that they felt enormous sadness and grief over her loss. And gratitude for her good deeds".

Zhanna Kameneva

photo was provided by Bohdan Yavorsky

"A volunteer`s nature is to keep helping until the last second of their lives. She said: "I cannot leave people alone". Volunteers don`t think about their own skin, they fully give themselves away in service to others", – added Zhanna`s friend Bohdan.

Author: Natalia Mazina