“Help me not get sick”

How Nadezhda Savchenko was greeted in Kyiv

Talk that Nadezhda Savchenko will be exchanged has been heard in Kyiv for several months now. But that's what the conversations are, even if they came from diplomatic circles, including those tied to the Minsk and Normandy formats. US Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland spoke about the possibility of an exchange after her visit to Ukraine at the end of April. However, the fact that the talk about the exchange would soon turn into a real result, it became clear without rumors: the trial of Alexandrov and Erofeev went at a sprint pace, started in early April, and already on the 18th the verdict was delivered. On May 23, it entered into force, but the defense did not file an appeal - in general, the word “exchange” was in full swing in the air, but no one in Kiev knew exactly when this could happen.

Top secret

On May 25, after a short news from the Russian Interfax about the exchange of Savchenko for Yerofeev and Aleksandrov, panic began among Ukrainian journalists. Later we will find out: because of this "unauthorized" message, Savchenko herself - and by that time she had already been brought to the airport

Rostov-on-Don - they kept her in a paddy wagon for another five hours, and she had to go to the toilet on the ship.

Journalists in Kyiv began to cut off the phones of the press service of the presidential administration, but they only shrugged their shoulders - they say, we don’t know anything. From the numbers of the first vice-speaker of the Rada, Irina Gerashchenko, there was an automatic redirection to her reception, where the secretary girls at first spoke nonsense about some meeting in Kiev, then they could not stand it and still admitted: the boss “had left somewhere and she wouldn’t be there for five hours ". Later it turned out that Gerashchenko flew to Rostov to meet Nadezhda.

The Ukrainian border guards did not know anything either, they received information about the exchange from journalists, but after an hour, according to them, they were ready to receive the presidential "board number 1" with Nadezhda, but they did not know where he would fly - either to Boryspil, or whether in Gostomel.

By the way, it was from Gostomel that same morning that the plane took off with Alexandrov and Erofeev - and no one knew about this either. Later, Irina Gerashchenko will tell: they could, by agreement, be allowed to visit Nadezhda Savchenko in Rostov only after the plane with two bombers took off in Gostomel.

In a tuple

And then everything went about like this.

May 25, 13.30. Borispol airport. The entire space near the fence separating the arrival hall of official delegations from the runway was packed with journalists.

14.00 - the presidential motorcade rushed to the runway, as they later explained in the state security department - without the president: Poroshenko, who sent his plane for Savchenko, was waiting for Nadezhda at the workplace, in the building of the Presidential Administration.

15.15. “Aircraft number 1” was supposed to arrive at 14.45, but it was almost half an hour late and landed in the military sector, somewhere in the far corner of the airfield, no one really saw its landing, although all the cameras were aimed at the sky for three whole hours.

Nadezhda's mother and sister came to meet her, accompanied by the whole Batkivshchyna faction, where Savchenko is now "number one." Moreover, Maria Ivanovna is arm in arm with Yulia Timoshenko.

But none of the deputies were allowed near the plane, only Maria Ivanovna and Vera were put into a black minivan from the presidential motorcade.

15.30 While everyone is waiting for Savchenko, a bus for official delegations arrives, Irina Gerashchenko gets out of it and goes to the journalists, on the way one of the Batkivshchyna deputies shouts to her: “What are we, like fools here?” It becomes clear: Savchenko will be taken from the plane in a motorcade immediately to the Presidential Administration and no one will let her in to the press.

Irina Gerashchenko apologized to reporters for the fact that everything was "so secret, but nothing would have happened otherwise." She added that "they themselves have been waiting since five in the morning." And then one of the journalists ran somewhere to the left, Gerashchenko shouted: “Nadya, Nadya!”

"Don't Surround Me"

Savchenko ran out of the road, barefoot, in a T-shirt and jeans.

Journalists surrounded her, next to her were representatives of the state guard and the press secretary of the President of Ukraine Svyatoslav Tsegolko with a surprised expression on his face. It became clear that Savchenko violated the script.

Nadezhda walks in a circle with her arms outstretched so that she is not surrounded: “I spent almost two years indoors in a solitary cell, I didn’t see people, don’t surround me,” she didn’t say, but screamed.

The people parted a little. Nadezhda began to say: "Sorry, those mothers whose sons died, sorry, mothers whose children are in captivity, heroes should be in parliament, it's very convenient when the heroes are dead" ... "I'm ready to go fight for my land again."

And again: "Peace is possible through war."

And further: “Thanks to everyone who helped, thanks to you I survived, thanks to everyone who did not interfere, thanks to those who interfered, thanks to you I became embittered.”

Savchenko was very excited, she refused flowers - "better tell your mother." Mom herself was forgotten somewhere behind the journalists, and Nadezhda called her: "where is my mother." Several times Savchenko jumped into the minivan of the presidential cortege and returned; then she approached Yulia Tymoshenko and asked when to come to the parliament to work.

She did not thank the authorities for anything, she did not take flowers from the deputies either.

In parting, she said that there would still be a press conference, and at the very end, before the door of the motorcade bus closed, she shouted: “Help me not get mad.”

The cortege left to the cries of "Glory to Ukraine" and "Glory to the nation!"