«It's too bad Russia attacked us with such wickedness.» Journalists found the old woman with the red flag used by Russian propaganda • The Insider • RIMA — архив российских независимых медиа
Ukrainian journalists have found the old woman with the red flag whose monuments are being erected in Russia. The interview was recorded in a hospital in Kharkiv, where Anna Ivanovna and her husband were taken after a Russian shell hit their house. The old woman herself explains she came out with a red flag to ask the soldiers she believed were part of the Russian military «not to destroy Ukraine and resolve issues peacefully.»
«Of course, the situation is terrible. It's too bad Russia attacked us with such wickedness,» Anna Ivanovna says.
According to her, such she did not want the «fame»: «It would have been better had there been no fame. And had there been no war.»
As the Troika telegram channel reported on May 3, Anna Ivanovna lived with her husband in the Dvorichna District of the Kharkiv region.
In early April, a video surfaced of the old woman walking out to meet the Ukrainian military with the Victory Banner. She thought the Russian military had entered the settlement. «We were waiting for you and praying for you, and for Putin, and for all the people,» the pensioner said. One of the soldiers, after handing her groceries, began stomping on the Soviet flag. After that, the grandmother refused to accept the food.
Banners and wall paintings with the old woman carrying a red flag have appeared in a number of Russian cities. Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roskosmos, promised her image would be painted on one of the rockets. And the Voronezh Governor Alexander Gusev said that sculptures of the «flag bearing» old woman will be installed in Voronezh on Victory Day.
