“Not my fight”: Marianna Vyshemirskaya, the pregnant woman from Mariupol maternity hospital
One year after the attack that was documented by Associated Press journalists, the photos are still "haunting" her.
A year after the world saw the photograph of a young woman with blood on her face standing in front of a burned out hospital in Mariupol, Marianna Vyshemirskaya, pictured in it, is still struggling with the “unwanted fame”. It comes with a jolt.
Marianna, native of Makiivka, a satellite town of Donetsk, lived in Mariupol for several years before Russia invaded Ukraine. On March 9 Mariupol hospital where Marianna was awaiting delivery, was struck with an explosion. At that time battle for Mariupol was in its second week — Russian forces have encircled the city since March 2.
Ukrainian armed forces haven’t shown much resistance as the Russian troops were marching towards the city. Instead, they’ve chosen to defend Mariupol from within the city, regardless of the risks to the civilian population. Something that Amnesty International would later call as “tactics endangering civilians”, only to apologize later on after a waterfall of criticism from Ukraine’s officials. The report, however wasn’t withdrawn, and the outrage it caused was quickly buried under the news of endless tragedies of civilians dying on both sides of the frontline.
In the attack on the maternity hospital on March 9, Marianna wasn’t hurt much, except for a few cuts. A day later, she gave birth to a daughter — in another hospital in the 17th microdistrict of Mariupol, where she and other women were evacuated by the Ukrainian police. But there were victims, clearly. The woman on the stretcher whom Maloletka took a picture of (some media mistakenly claimed that it was Marianna) died, as did her child. Another woman, who later escaped to Germany and gave an interview to several media outlets, was seriously wounded and lost her baby.
According to Ukrainian authorities, several air bombs were dropped on the hospital; by Russia, killing three and wounding 17 people. President of Ukraine called the attack “an act of genocide”.
Russian authorities refuted the claim, calling it “a staged provocation”.
Within first couple of days after the attack, pro-Russian telegram channel and than Russian media claimed the beauty blogger Marianna Vyshemirskaya “took part in a photo shoot”, she was brought to the scene and made to change her clothes. This version was initially propagated by Russian officials and diplomats.
Marianna was indeed a blogger before the war. She continues to run her beauty blog on Instagram even now, even though blogging has taken a back seat, paving the way to motherhood and humanitarian activities. A few months ago, Marianna officially joined the Moscow-based foundation, which sends humanitarian aid to the Donbass.
A life-changing photo
Marianna spent the past one year struggling to be heard.
In the beginning of April 2022, around two weeks after the maternity hospital attack, a video interview with Marianna was published by Donetsk-based blogger Denis Seleznev and war correspondent Kristina Melnikova who covered the Donbass conflict since its beginning in 2014. In the interview, Marianna spoke in detail about that tragic day and how she happened to be in the photo of Associated Press reporters.
Chernov and Maloletka claimed they were the “last” journalists in Mariupol before they were evacuated by the retreating military. Their body of work indeed is a vivid evidence of the horror Maripol residents went through.
In this AP report, accompanied by this video, Marianna claims she heard two explosions.
“It happened on March 9 in Hospital No. 3 in Mariupol. We were lying in wards when glass, frames, windows and walls flew apart,” said Vishegirskaya, who has blogged on social media about fashion and beauty.
“We don’t know how it happened. We were in our wards and some had time to cover themselves, some didn’t,” she said.
There is no question about the airstrike in the report or the video, despite Marianna claims that she was asked a specific question — and that she responded negatively. There is indeed a mention of Marianna’s comment that she didn’t think it was an airstrike in later AP’s report (dated April 8 ), but it refers to woman’s comment in the interview with Russian reporters (with a note that “it’s not clear exactly where or under what conditions the interview was filmed”). The same story states that Marianna “falsely” said [in the interview with Seleznev] that she told AP journalists she did not want to be filmed”.
Meanwhile, the interview released by Seleznev was immediately cut into bites. Thousands of them are now available on YouTube. Russian, Ukrainian and international media outlets used quotes from this interview, always in a different context. Russian propaganda, for example, quoted her in story that (still!) claims the airstrike was “staged” and Marianna was “placed on the stretcher”.
The Western media and the Russian opposition outlets, many of which did fact-checking stories, claim, citing some “Ukraine specialists”, that Marianna was under pressure.
While Marianna spent the last year bearing with tremendous amount of hate on all of her social media accounts — from Russians initially accusing her of taking part in a photo shoot, then from Ukrainians, accusing her of collaborating with Russians even after they “bombed her” — AP’s Chernov and Maloletka received many professional awards (including French Visa d’Or and Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award and DW's Freedom of Speech Award 2022) and were featured by respected industry bodies along with “tips” how to counter misinformation.
Chernov’s picture of Mariana continues living its own life. It is still being used by most outlets to portray Russia’s war crimes, and it is also being used by Putin’s critics to portray Russia’s atrocities.
In the latest episode, Marianna found her picture being used in a post by ex-oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who has been living in London since 2015 (after spending over 10 years in Russian jail). He placed Marianna’s photo alongside with an archive photo of the Leningrad siege during WWII, comparing battle for Mariupol in March-May 2022 with the siege of Leningrad in 1941-1943.
Commenting on this in her Telegram channel, Marianna wondered if Mikhail or his speechwriters were aware of the context of this shot. “Do they know the history of this photo, have they seen my comments about it? And in general, why can anyone take my photo and attach any comment alongside it?” she asked in a Telegram post.
“Feminists talk a lot about the objectification of women, when the image of a person is used without attention to his personality. But, unfortunately, objectification is not just a gender issue, it is also characteristic of propaganda. Mr. Khodorkovsky is doing just the same — using my image in order to give meaning to his words. At the same time, unfortunately, his words have nothing to do with reality, because he was not in Mariupol either during the hostilities or after. And yes, I can compare the siege of Leningrad with what I saw in Mariupol. But only an outright propagandist and manipulator can unilaterally blame the Russian side for this,” she insisted.
“Let me remind you that my family could evacuate because the Ukrainian leadership of Mariupol did not organize such an evacuation, did not inform people about the opportunity to leave, turning them into hostages of urban battles. And I was able to escape with my newborn daughter only when the forces of the DPR entered the city,” Marianna added.
She even decided to explored opportunities for legally protecting her image from being used by politicians and media in order to manipulate opinion.
After the story with Khodorkovsky's post, Marianna was invited to speak at Russian state-owned channels and various pro-Kremlin streams, where she repeated the story about the photo again and again. However, last year's publications (by the same media outlets) about the “staged” photoshoot in Mariupol were not corrected in any way. International media haven’t corrected the mistake in Marianna's surname, made initially — it is still Vyshegirskaya in the AP archive and multiple reports in other media outlets.
It is still not clear what had happened in Mariupol on March 9, 2022. There is no publicly available information on any investigation being conducted.
As New York Times reported on March 9, on the anniversary of the maternity hospital attack, the Pentagon is blocking the Biden administration from sharing evidence with the International Criminal Court in The Hague gathered by American intelligence agencies about Russian atrocities in Ukraine, as “American military leaders fear setting a precedent that might help pave the way for it to prosecute Americans”.
On forgiveness and humanity
I interviewed Mariana in August 2022 in her hometown Makeevka, and later online. Nearly two-hour interview has been edited for length and clarity, making sure no meaning is changed and keeping it as close to the original speech as possible.
I must say that I admire your courage in this story with the photographs, given the outrage they have caused. I think I would have been very afraid to be public about it, particularly having a small baby. How did you make such a decision?
I can explain it this way. Everything happened on March 9, when Mariupol was cut off from electricity, phone and internet, and water for a week. When [the tragedy in the maternity hospital and my photos] started being discussed on social media, in the news, I didn't know about it. So naturally I didn't understand the specifics and the scale of this.
I should however note that on March 10th, the next day after the tragedy, one of the [AP] reporters, who was filming me near the maternity hospital — as I later found out, was Mstislav Chernov from Associated Press (although these photos were initially attributed to Yevgeny Maloletka, but I didn't see him on March 9th) — Chernov and Maloletka entered the postoperative room where I was after a cesarean section procedure and asked for an interview. I explained that I didn't want to give any interviews at that moment, as you understand, I just had surgery.
Then the journalists justified their request in this way: "We published your photo online, it had caused a huge resonance all over the world. And now you just have to comment". I thought, since it had happened, since I happened to be involved in such events, I’ll have to say something in any case.
Their questions were structured as follows: please tell us what was happening in the maternity hospital when this happened, where were you at that time, was there an air strike? That is, there was a specific question [about air strike].
I explained that it was March 9th, we were in our wards, we heard one explosion, followed by another, windows with frames flew out, then we were evacuated. But there was no air strike, as no plane could be heard: there was absolute silence, then an explosion, followed by another one, and no accompanying sounds before or after. It was impossible not to hear the plane: March 8 and 9 were peaceful days, there were no fights [in the city]. They smiled, said "okay," but in the end, they only published an edited video of our conversation.
And when we arrived here [in Donetsk, where Marianna's parents stay] and raised this issue with them, since I already had an understanding of how they had used the video with me and how they had told the story…
Do you mean you got in touch with these journalists?
My ex-husband wrote to Mstislav Chernov on Facebook. And when he asked, "Why didn't you publish [the whole conversation]? Especially since you initiated this question [about the airstrike]," he said that nothing clear was told, so they cut that moment out. Eventually they made a clip of my statements, 30 seconds long. And when there was a request to publish the full video, they ignored it.
There were a lot of people at the scene, haven't they interviewed any other survivors?
They took a lot of pictures, and there were many other girls there, but for some reason they chose a blogger, even though I had a small audience (I had a small beauty blog, no more than 35,000 people which is not so much, I believe). Somehow, only my photos ended up in the media, even though there were at least 30 other people there, pregnant women and those who had just delivered.
And were they photographed too?
Yes, they were.. That girl on the stretcher was carried out literally 10-15 minutes after the explosion. Photographers were already there [on the scene], they were taking pictures of the first people to be evacuated. But for some reason, only my photos and the girl on the stretcher ended up on the internet — even then someone later claimed that it was also me [on the stretcher]".
I read an interview of another woman from the hospital, Victoria, who unfortunately lost her child. She and her husband were able to flee to Germany. In the interview, she may not assert that there was an air strike, but seems like she means that. 'We had heard a plane flying over and dropping a bomb somewhere... And every time we would wait with bated breath — where it was dropped, close by or far away. We would understand a few seconds later. But this arrival was just 'boom!' — and everything collapsed like a house of cards.'
After we were evacuated to the hospital in the 17th microdistrict, we were chatting with other girls and discussing whether anyone had heard the air raid. No one had, there were no accompanying sounds — it was an immediate explosion somewhere fareway. Then literally in 30 seconds — I cannot say exactly how long, but no more than a minute, because when I heard the first explosion, I just managed to cover my head with a blanket and opened my mouth — the second explosion followed. If there was a plane flying, we would definitely hear it. When an incoming missile flies, you can hear it, there is a whistle sound.
That's why I say there was no air strike. I understand if it was only me who didn’t hear the plane, but no one did. When AP journalists came to the 17th microdistrict hospital, there were probably 15-20 people [evacuated from maternity hospital No. 3] who I saw with my own eyes [at the site of the tragedy]. There were pregnant women and women in labor. But no one gave those journalists the desired confirmation that it was an air strike or at least that they heard the sound of a plane.
As for your question [about the decision to be public]... I simply had to defend myself. Of course, it didn’t feel good that I got into such a situation, where I was not guilty of anything, I owed nothing to anyone, but still had to justify myself. Nevertheless, as I wanted all the questioning to stop, I had to explain the situation and tell what really happened".
You must be referring to the interview that you gave to Denis Seleznev and Kristina Melnikova? This interview itself, in addition to the photos, was interpreted very differently in Russian, Ukrainian and the Western media.
I agreed to share my comments because in such a situation, staying silent was not an option. I believe that those who are guilty of something are the ones who remain silent, because they have nothing to say and don't know how to defend themselves. And when you are not guilty, why not speak out? Particularly in a situation where you are a direct witness to all these events. And I agreed for an interview.
There was a lot of confusion about the maternity hospital that was attacked. Russian authorities made statements about maternity hospital No. 1 on the left bank, which was indeed occupied by the Ukrainian military. You were in the hospital No. 3, closer to the city center, while the actual maternity ward is located in a different building, at a decent distance, as you pointed out in your video. Meanwhile, your "famous" photo is taken opposite the children's department, which was empty at the time of the tragedy. Am I correct here?
In August, Amnesty International accused the Ukrainian military of creating risks for civilians by occupying hospitals and schools. What do you think about this?
Yes, we were in a different maternity hospital, not the one that was occupied by the military (maternity hospital No. 1). But in the oncology department building next to ours, roughly speaking, around the corner from our building, the military were based. This is also visible in my video. At the same time, [social media users] later accused me of why I was saying this, why I was lying.
But I am not lying: no one was hiding anything. All staff, pregnant women, and local residents knew that the military were located in the oncology building. At the same time, they came to our field kitchen and asked our husbands who were cooking food for us if they could have something to eat. They justified this by saying that they had no communication with their command, and hence, no supplies.
I am being criticized for talking about this. Then why would you make a base at the site of a maternity hospital? Such actions directly contradict the Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians during armed conflicts. In any case, even if they choose some strategic sites that give them some advantage, they must first evacuate all civilians from the adjacent territories before occupying these sites.
Am I right that no one was evacuated from Mariupol before the start of the hostilities?
No, there was no organized evacuation, such as buses to take people out. Even those who tried to leave by their own vehicles were not allowed to leave the city. People were simply trapped in the city without the possibility of escaping.
I personally consider this as [using residents as] a living shield… You know, if at first I thought it was impossible, but after seeing everything with my own eyes and hearing things from other Mariupol residents, I have fewer and fewer doubts.
There were many instances: placing troops and weapons in kindergartens, firing from weapons placed near residential buildings. For example, there was a mortar near our building and it was firing for three consecutive days. How can you defend [city] like this? When we left the city via the humanitarian corridor, I personally saw brand new bunkers that no one ever used — [the military] just left them and went into the city. I had chills when I listened to people's stories. And at some point, I came to the conclusion that in this case, with this particular city, it was not defense of the people, but defense of the territory.
The mayor left the city, abandoning the population, without even trying to organize an evacuation. I understand that he has a family, and I understand that he needs to take care of them, but this is a person who took responsibility for the city, he held a certain position, he was not just some volunteer...
This does not prevent Ukrainian and Western media from quoting him today, six months later, as the mayor of the city and publishing news based on his information.
I do not judge him. No one has the right to judge anyone — “judge not, lest ye be judged”. I always had a positive opinion of him because before these events, he was a very good mayor and did a lot for Mariupol. The city flourished under him.
When I was a student and traveled to Mariupol for a scientific conference, I was horrified — it felt like back in the Stone Age. Not a single new building, the existing ones were old and weary. But when I moved to Mariupol in 2019-2020, I didn't recognize the city. It really transformed. During the years I lived in Mariupol, it continued to transform, so there is nothing to claim against the mayor in this regard.
But given how he left, I was really disappointed. He did not try to help the residents in any way. Even if he couldn't help, he could have at least warned people, say, "Hey, leave the city!”, because no one could have thought of such a scale of the hostilities.
And when I now receive angry comments saying, "You are shameless, ungrateful, they defended you, and you..” The only thing I want to say to all these people is that God forbid they ever be defended like that.
Defence is when you do it somewhere in the fields or at least away from residential areas, or when you evacuate people to minimize losses. But when people are intentionally not let go, it is not protection of the population, it is protecting themselves using us [as a shield]. It may sound harsh, but that's how it is.
I can only imagine the amount of hate that you have to face, especially now that you are officially working with a Russian charity (Narodny Fond "RODINA"), living in Moscow, and delivering humanitarian aid to cities and villages in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). This, I assume, implies that you have made certain “political” choice? From what I see in the Ukrainian media, the criticism against you is just growing.
I have been involved in humanitarian work even before becoming the face of the foundation and one of its representatives. We joined forces precisely because our goals and views coincide. We want to help those who need it most — the children and families of Donbass. (We have already made a joint trip to the front-line cities of Luhansk and Donetsk People's Republics, delivering aid to Luhansk, Pervomaisk, Horlivka, and Donetsk.)
Regarding my choice, I had many options. We were invited to Turkey, offered to go to Europe, where we would be given accommodation and financial support, and we could also go to Ukraine.
I have friends who were able to travel there freely via Russia. But I made my choice in favor of my home.
I am a very emotionally stable person...however, when I started understanding the situation and read what people were writing to me (at first, I didn't read anything at all because I was primarily focused on my child's health), I was shocked. And in the first few days, when I checked my DMs [direct messages on social media platforms] it would be thousands of messages per day. It was impossible to read and respond to them all, but I did read some of them and even responded, regardless of whether they wished death upon my child or wished us happiness and peace.
I'm trying to imagine what words one could use to wish death upon a child...
I won't quote the actual words used because I can't even bring myself to say them. To give you an idea, they didn't even use the word "child." They called her anything but that, probably using more than 20 different interpretations. I can understand when someone wishes death upon me if that's what they believe, but to wish it upon a child who has just been born and hasn't done anything wrong in her life... However, I don't wish ill will upon those people who wished bad things for my child, I sincerely don't.
To everyone who writes kindly, and to everyone who writes bad things, I want to embrace everyone equally — some with gratitude for their support, which is very important to me because, unfortunately, there is more negativity than support , but I also want to hug others, so that people can feel kindness, love, and understand that we are not enemies to each other and it's not right to wish death upon people, whether it's a child or an adult who is either guilty or innocent.
When we act so thoughtlessly, we become like animals. And that leads to what we are now reaping. And until we learn to listen to each other, until we accept each other, unfortunately, it won't end — so we need to remain human beings first and foremost.
After all, I was here [in Donetsk] in 2014, I saw what was happening here all this time. I never wished anyone death, God forbid, I never said anything bad about Ukrainians or the Armed Forces of Ukraine because I understood perfectly well that civilians have nothing to do with this, and the military they are just following orders from their commanders — they are subordinates. I doubt anyone enjoys sending our way the rockets that kill our children and peaceful citizens.
I guess it's no secret to you — particularly since you're here, you see everything with your own eyes — all the missiles are hitting the social infrastructure: kindergartens, schools, hospitals and maternity wards, playgrounds, student dormitories, residential buildings, residential areas.
Despite all this, I believe in people — I am a deeply religious person — and I believe that they say such things out of a sense of fear and hopelessness. Every time I receive a message with terrible wishes, I sincerely pray to God at that moment to forgive people for all their thoughts, known and unknown, and to send them love and kindness in their hearts and souls, so that they can somehow move away from this anger.
I understand perfectly well that they are scared and in pain, but we here, too, are scared and in pain. I do not distinguish between the children who die here and there, between people in general — we all have the same right to life.
It is scary that at a time when enormous amounts of money are being spent on war around the world, this money is being spent on killing people, to reduce the population. This money could be used for good — to treat children and people who need medical care.
Ukraine classifies the tragedy with the Mariupol maternity hospital as a "war crime" committed by Russia. Have Ukrainian authorities, international organizations, or maybe Russian authorities (media reports suggest that the Russian government had initiated a case in which you are recognized as a victim), approached you as a witness of those events?
No. Neither side has approached me, and I have already been asked these questions in interviews multiple times. It's possible that they tried to reach me through direct messages [on social media], but I receive thousands of messages a day and it's difficult to keep track of everything. However, I believe that if any organizations wanted to contact me, they would do so in the same way that journalists do. If journalists manage to reach out, then various organizations can easily do so, including Ukrainian ones.
Over the past year, you have given dozens of interviews in different languages. Were there any cases where something was cut out, such as with Associated Press, and this changed the context — regardless of whether it was a Russian, Ukrainian or international media outlet?
I can give an example from the BBC interview. I must say that the interviewer, Marianna Spring, tried to preserve my direct speech as much as possible — at least my statements were not distorted. But the BBC [services] in other languages, for example, Italian, did their own translations.
So in the Italian version [of this interview], they added their own remarks, saying that I gave the interview to their compatriot Giorgio Bianchi and that I did it almost at gunpoint. Although Giorgio did not pressure me at all. We had an agreement that there would be no cuts and the material would be presented in its original form. He created the most comfortable conditions for me. I was completely calm during the interview with him, my child was next to me. After all, some write that "it's not even clear if you see your child, or if they take them away from you so that you say everything correctly."
In the same BBC interview, there was a comment that they believed [what happened in the maternity hospital] was an air raid, although I stated it wasn’t — but that's from my words, and what do I understand about such a thing…
I am no military expert, but still... I was there myself.
Have you been asked provocative questions?
Journalists are not all the same. Sometimes you can tell by looking at someone's eyes whether they are surprised by what you're saying. For example, during an interview with Japanese media, when I talked about certain things, I could see genuine and unfeigned surprise on their faces. They tried to understand my perspective and point of view, rather than just taking a pro-Western stance.
However, some journalists, whom I won't name, were very well prepared with specifically provocative questions. And this was not to understand the situation better, but to provoke me into giving specific answers.
Once, during a live call-in show with an Italian TV channel, I was asked the following question: "Tell me, please, do you consider yourself Ukrainian or Russian?" I replied, "Do you mean who I am according to my passport, or what?" — "No, in your heart, do you consider yourself Ukrainian or Russian?"
For me, this question is unclear. If we're not talking about my citizenship by passport, then how does it matter at all. It was a provocative question — they wanted me to express my position [on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine], to indicate my affiliation, while I have not only Ukrainian and Russian roots but also German and Polish, and I have infinite respect for my ancestors, and I would never disown any of them.
But many residents of Ukraine found it important to indicate their affiliation after the beginning of the invasion — some have started speaking Ukrainian, even if they had not done so ever before.
You know, I call this pseudo-patriotism.
I began to notice that those who had spoken Russian their whole lives switched to Ukrainian. I have nothing against the Ukrainian language, I know it well and can speak it fluently. But Donbass never spoke Ukrainian — everyone here always spoke Russian. I'm not saying whether it's good or bad — that’s just the way it was. But when they started forcing [people to speak Ukrainian], when they began to specifically oppress the Russian language — for me, that's not normal. It's a violation of human rights and freedoms.
I saw some TikTok. videos of guys fighting on the side of Ukraine. They return to the city and face the fact that they are being criticized for speaking Russian. They respond, "Listen, you're not a soldier, you're hiding somewhere [from being sent to fight], and you're condemning me for speaking Russian — and I'm fighting for you?"
I don't know, I guess this is some kind of a lapse in sanity, if people don't understand the true values.
You and your husband divorced after all that happened. Did you have any disagreements about the situation, the military conflict, or was that not the reason for the divorce?
We didn't have any conflicts based on political views. Firstly, I am an apolitical person. However, being apolitical doesn't mean you're stupid. It means that you try to stay away from political issues because it's a very sensitive topic.
Secondly, you need to be well-informed in different areas, understand issues at global scale, not just limited to the tiny world around you. It takes a lot of time, and you really have to be very interested in it to make some comprehensive conclusions.
I'm not used to looking stupid: if I don't understand something, I either stay silent about it or, if I need to express my opinion, I spend a lot of time researching.
Still, your perception of what has been going on in your hometown since 2014 somehow differs from the perception of people from other regions of Ukraine. What did the people in Mariupol think about the war in Donbass, given that in 2014 violence broke out in Mariupol as well?
Specifically, the people in Mariupol and other Ukrainians, in general, knew little or nothing about the conflict in Donbass.
Like, it didn't exist for them?
It didn't exist. They knew that something was happening, but they didn't even think that people were dying here.
Seriously?
Seriously. They thought that someone was dissatisfied with something, someone had separated, and it was unclear whether they had separated or not... They didn't even have a rough grasp of the situation. Some knew that someone had separated, but they didn't think that anyone was being killed for this very reason. They sincerely didn't know about it.
So for them, the war that broke out on February 24 was a surprise?
Not for everyone. Some were interested, some knew something. But for some, the actions that were happening here since 2014 were a sincere surprise.
You've already said that you're not angry with people who write nasty things, insults, and wish you and your child harm. What does your family think about it? After all, it's one thing to be threatened online, and another thing to be physically safe.
If at first, my soul was turned inside out when I went into my DMs and read all those messages, then over time, I became more calm about it. In general, I took the position in life not to be offended because it only makes things worse for myself. If I let anger and resentment into my soul, they will be eating me up inside.
As for what was said and is being said about me to this day, no matter which side it's from — that's their struggle, not mine. It's certainly unpleasant, but I don't get angry with them. Everyone has their own reasons. Some condemn me because they don't fully understand the situation, and for some, it's their job to say what they say. Associated Press journalists are one example. I don't think they had any personal animosity towards me.
Just doing their job?
Yes, just doing their job. They have higher management and censorship [at that level], some things can be written, others cannot. So I don't have any personal grievances against them. Of course, I mentioned that they didn't do very well by distorting information about me. But, as I said, I don't have any personal grievances because I understand that they are subordinates, and this is their job.
In January, after the story with Mikhail Khodorkovsky, you said you would try to get legal help to protect your rights and reputation from such situations where your photo is used out of context. Did anything come of it?
Yes, I am preparing a lawsuit regarding Mikhail Borisovich Khodorkovsky's use of my photo in his propaganda materials, which defames my honor and dignity. The materials compare Mariupol and the besieged Leningrad. I am not claiming any material damages; it will be enough for me if my photo is removed from his materials and I get a public apology.
Dealing with the press and all these comments on a daily basis must be taking a lot of physical and emotional resources?
It does. But maybe it's easier for me to deal with all this because I have an inexhaustible source of energy — my child. It's such a great happiness in life that words cannot express.
I try to distance myself from everything that is happening to me, all the hate, all the attacks towards me. My daughter is the source of love and positive energy; she's the thread that probably pulled me out of there... At some moments, when we were in the hospital in the 17th microdistrict, it seemed like we wouldn't make it out.
But I prayed to God until the last moment for strength, not so much for myself, but for my child as I wanted her to live. Because you already let the child into this world, of course with God's help and the help of doctors, but still... so obviously you want your little one to live, to enjoy life, have first successes and victories, feel the taste of life in all its spectra. And it's not just for my child, it's for every child. I wish this for all the children.
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