The 27-year-old blonde woman, with a sad face, pleaded with Catholic Pope Francis: "Please talk to Putin and save my husband..."
The woman's name is Katarina Prokopenko. In her view, the situation of her husband and his "comrades-in-arms" is very critical, to the point where only the "last breath" remains.
This "rescue drama" immediately attracted the world's attention - her husband Dennis Prokopenko, the number one commander of the "Azov battalion" in Ukraine, is now trapped in the Azov steel plant.
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, his name disappeared from Ukrainian websites for a time. Foreign media analysis said that this may be "to avoid being used by Russia", after all, on the Russian wikipedia, he is considered to be "the embodiment of the neo-Nazi in Ukraine".
However, recently, the desperate Prokopenko has not only begun to show his face frequently, but also sent his wife to appear everywhere for help.
The wife went abroad for help
On May 11, in St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, Caterina and the wife of another member of the "Azov Battalion" finally met the Pope. They immediately began to complain: when their husbands were besieged for a long time, they lacked food, drink, and medicines, and they had fallen into a desperate situation.
"You are our last hope! I hope you can save their lives, please don't let them die. Caterina said to the Pope. The pope responded by saying he would do everything possible to pray for them.
Caterina was in a real hurry.
Three days earlier, on May 8, Pravda Ukraine interviewed her husband about the Azov steel plant, and the commander of the "Azov Battalion" summed it up in just four words: extremely difficult.
On the same day, Ukrainian President Zelenskiy also said at a press conference that Ukraine could not use military means to "liberate" Mariupol, which was controlled by the Russian army, because Ukraine did not have enough heavy weapons. At the same time, he acknowledged that Ukrainian soldiers trapped inside the Azov steel plant had been difficult to evacuate.
Just five minutes to ask the Pope for help, of course, is not enough for Caterina to play. More "details", she released through the major international media early on.
Earlier, she emotionally showed reporters photos of her husband, saying that she could not only care about civilians, "the lives of soldiers are also very important."
In her mouth, the trapped members of the "Azov Battalion" were in a hurry, eating moldy bread every day, and drinking water became a dream. More than 600 of them were injured, but the medical conditions were worrying, some were only bandaged, and some had their limbs amputated. They shared a room with the bodies of their "comrades-in-arms".
She texted her husband and said, "Hold on, we'll do everything we can to save you!" ”
She began to seek help from Europe, the United States and international organizations, asking them to carry out Dunkirk-style rescue missions.
"We need to do that now because people are dying every hour, every second."
"We need brave countries to give Russia an ultimatum and save our soldiers, civilians and children by sea or air."
However, just as Caterina was wandering around to win sympathy for her husband, someone pulled out her "black history". She is not unlucky to marry a "silly white sweet" member of the "Azov Battalion", just as the so-called family does not enter the door, before marriage she and her companions performed Nazi salutes...
Inherit the hatred of the grandfather
Prokopenko, who sent his wife to appear, is really mysterious. Some foreign media said that Chechen president and Putin general Ramzan Kadyrov offered a reward of $500,000 to buy his life.
As for the trajectory of his life, people can only roughly piece together from the words reported in the past.
Born in 1991, he graduated from the Language Institute of Kiev State Linguistic University, majoring in English teachers, nicknamed "radish" - "Azov Camp" members later called him so.
An avid fan of Dynamo Kiev Football Club, he joined the "Azov Battalion" and in 2014 commanded a company to fight pro-Russians in the Wudong region.
Prokopenko is ambitious. In a July 2016 interview, he said that "the mission [of the 'Azov Battalion'] is to build a new type of army, and to improve the military capabilities of the troops, you have to "start with practice, not with theory."
He also said that the "Azov Battalion" unit he led "can operate independently on the front line and will not constantly disappoint people in battle like other sub-units."
Some people believe that Prokopenko's madness and fierceness may be related to his family. Although he was born in Ukraine, his grandfather was from the Karelia region of Finland and served in the Finnish Defence Forces. When war broke out between Finland and the Soviet Union in 1939, his grandfather went to the front and, though he survived, hated the Russians ever since.
Prokopenko inherited the hatred in his grandfather's heart. "Can you imagine what it's like to lose your family? All his brothers are dead..."
He had taken a picture in uniform and with a weapon. His clothes can be seen sewn with the historical cross flag of the Republic of Eastern Karelia, a symbol used by Karelian nationalists seeking independence in Eastern Karelia.
In September 2017, Prokopenko became the commander of the "Azov Battalion". Two years later, as a captain, he received a third-class medal from Zelenskiy.
In March, he was awarded the title of "Hero of Ukraine" by Zelenskiy. Shortly before that, he commanded the "Azov Battalion" against the Russian 150th Motorized Infantry Division. The "Azov Battalion" claimed that they had killed the division's commander, Major General Oleg Miteyev, and posted photos of the so-called corpses on the Internet to demoralize the Russian army.
The news of Mideyev's death in battle was subsequently endorsed by Grashenko, an adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, but was not officially confirmed by Russia.
Since then, the "Ukrainian hero" has been rumored to have left his troops and run away.
Cornered
On April 11, Russian media reported that a former member of the Ukrainian parliament had posted on social media that Prokopenko had abandoned his troops in Mariupol and tried to escape the Russian encirclement overnight.
His evidence is that pro-Russian Donetsk militias shot down a helicopter that had come to meet the escape of the Ukrainian commander near the southwest coast of Maliupol. Later, the Russians also shot down a Mi-8 helicopter that attempted to cross the Russian blockade, the purpose of which was to pick up the commanders of the 36th Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, Baranyuk and Prokopenko.
Prokopenko naturally did not recognize it, and after "denying the three companies", he sent a video saying that he would never surrender to the Russian army. He said he looked down on deserters and soldiers, "who chose the path of shame." These people should never be heroic."
In order not to defeat the Russian army, he used frequent means and even ignored the bottom line.
On May 2, Germany's Der Spiegel magazine released a three-minute video. In the video, a Ukrainian woman said that she had previously worked at the Azov Steel Factory, where she and her husband and children took refuge after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, and as a result, they were taken hostage by the "Azov battalion" and used as a "human shield". The people of the "Azov Battalion" locked her family up for two months and were not allowed to leave through the humanitarian corridor provided by the Russian army.
Even if his true face is revealed, Prokopenko does not blush at all. Soon after, he posted a video on social media saying they had been fighting the superior Russian forces for 70 days, "always maintaining a comprehensive defense", proud of the 'Azov battalion'" and that the world's "strong support is what they deserve".
But on May 7, all the civilians at the Azov Steel Plant were evacuated, and he couldn't sit still when he saw that his "amulet" was gone. The Azov battalion held an online press conference, saying that withdrawing Ukrainian troops from the steel mill was the only viable option and asking Kiev to take "decisive steps" to advance the operation.
As a result, Zelenskiy said: Brothers, there is nothing I can do!
Desperate, Prokopenko couldn't help but "squirt".
He said in an interview that if the Ukrainian army had "more actively stopped the Russian army" before, the siege situation could have been avoided, and blamed the actions of the 36th Marine Brigade for being "incomprehensible".
"First of all, one of their battalions surrendered as early as April 4. As a result, we lost the only link between the 'Azov Battalion' and the 36th Brigade. Then, unexpectedly, the commander of the 36th Brigade, without any warning from anyone, decided to break directly in a direction that had not been agreed upon in advance, and he lost a lot of people. Similarly, many people act willfully and eventually become prisoners of Russia... These uncoordinated actions taken by the 36th Brigade had disastrous consequences that made it impossible for us to turn things around. ”
After complaining about his peers, he fiercely connotated the Ukrainian leadership.
"Is this the decision of the commander of the 36th Brigade?" Or was he pushed by someone in the leadership? I do not know. But in any case, this is completely illogical - they have absolutely enough military equipment and ammunition to defend themselves, and they don't know why they made that decision. ”
However, no matter how hard the "mouth cannon" hits, it is useless. Prokopenko, who has no hope of seeking help internally, can only pin his last hope on the outside world and send his wife to the United States and the West to sell misery. If you know today, why did you know it in the first place?
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhang Wu Text Editor: Yang Rong Title Image Source: Visual China Image Editor: Shao Jing
Source: Author: Global People