Katya, forgive me

How does the eldest daughter of Maria Ponomarenko, convicted for her anti-war position, and a Russian military man live?

The last time Ekaterina saw her mother in freedom was more than two and a half years ago. Everything has changed since then.

In February 2023, Maria Ponomarenko, an activist and journalist for the publication RusNews, was imprisoned for six years for a post about the shelling of a drama theater in Mariupol by the Russian army. A month later, Maria's husband and father of her two children volunteered for the war. Katya Ponomarenko gave her first interview to Novaya-Kazakhstan, in which she spoke about life in the family of an oppositionist and a Z-patriot, and also shared her hope for a new exchange of political prisoners.

The text was first published in Novaya Gazeta - Kazakhstan.

“Hello, your mother was detained for a long time”

Two weeks after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Maria Ponomarenko left Barnaul. She had long been planning to move to St. Petersburg and soon wanted to take her daughters with her: Ekaterina was then 16 years old, Victoria was twelve. Maria rented an apartment, trained as a cosmetologist-esthetician and planned to combine the work of a journalist and cosmetologist, and in the future open her own beauty salon: 10 years before moving to St. Petersburg, Maria worked as an eyelash extension specialist in the city of Raduzhny, Surgut region.

Ponomarenko did not have time to get a job as a cosmetologist in St. Petersburg. All her time was spent working for the Siberian publication RusNews , for which she covered local anti-war protests and actions in support of political prisoners.

Maria's eldest daughter, Ekaterina, arrived in St. Petersburg from her native Barnaul in early April. She participated in competitions in rhythmic gymnastics, which she had been doing since childhood. In their free time, mother and daughter walked around the city center. Katya fell in love with St. Petersburg and was looking forward to moving in the summer, immediately after finishing 10th grade. Less than three weeks later, on the afternoon of April 23, Maria was detained by security forces.

This was not the first time the journalist had been detained, so no one from the family was very worried. Maria was regularly fined starting in 2020, both in Barnaul and later in Novosibirsk, where she covered anti-war protests for RusNews. Once a journalist was detained during a live broadcast .

Later, in her last word , Maria expressed confidence that she was imprisoned not for her post, but for the fight against corruption. Ponomarenko wrote about the problems of former pupils of orphanages in the Altai Territory, who cannot get housing due to bribes from local authorities. While working on the material, she received threats , including from a local police officer. In October 2020, the journalist came out with a poster “Tomenko, where are the orphans’ apartments?” ( we are talking about the governor of Barnaul, Viktor Tomenko. - Ed. ) A month later, a criminal case was opened against administration officials.

Maria “tried to protect her daughters” and practically did not talk about her activities.

“She only warned that she might be detained.” Then I found out about this from the Internet, but we didn’t discuss the details,” recalls Ekaterina.

This time it was more serious. An investigative team from the Altai Territory left for St. Petersburg to detain Ponomarenko. The journalist was stopped on the street, and a search was carried out in her rented apartment. At approximately 15:00, Maria, already in detainee status, sent Katya a message: “Daughter, I’ll get in touch later.” Catherine was not afraid and was not very surprised. She thought that, as usual, “mom would be released in a day, three at most.”

In the evening, the girl received another message on WhatsApp, this time from the investigator. It became clear that in three days my mother would definitely not be released.

— The investigator sent me a photograph of my mother sitting in the police department, in handcuffs. And he wrote: “Hello, your mother was detained for a long time.”

I asked him what happened, and he wrote about Article 207.3 ( “Public dissemination of knowingly false information about the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.” — Ed .). I Googled it and I was shocked, of course. Not tears, just shock.

Later, Katya learned that the mother was charged with paragraph “d”, the second part of Article 207.3 - dissemination of “fakes” precisely for reasons of hatred or enmity. In this case, the sentence provides for imprisonment for a term of five to ten years. Then Katya realized that her mother would “one hundred percent be imprisoned, and imprisoned for a long time.”

- It was very scary. I was scared for my mother, for myself and for my sister. What to do without mom? How to continue to live?

The grandparents did not want to worry their youngest granddaughter and at first did not tell Vika about her mother’s arrest. But Katya decided that her sister should know, and told her the truth.

— Vika, naturally, was upset. But she didn’t have a very warm relationship with her mother, like I did, so she wasn’t very sad. Or maybe she just didn’t show her emotions.

“Mom is kind, good”

Katya doesn’t know how her parents met. They got married six months after her birth. Maria was then 27 years old, Dmitry - 29.

- Mother. What immediately comes to mind is kind, good. She is also pushy and will always achieve her goal whenever possible. A very persistent lady. I honestly don't know what else to say about her.

Katya was born in Barnaul. Then the Ponomarenkos moved to the city of Raduzhny, Surgut region, then lived in Krasnoyarsk for five years. Vika, Maria's youngest daughter, was born there. In 2016, the Ponomarenko family returned to Barnaul. Katya doesn’t know what caused the frequent moves, but she assumes that her parents were “looking for their place” in this way.

The Meduza publication wrote that in 2021, Ponomarenko divorced her husband and after that she and her daughters moved from Barnaul to Novosibirsk. In a conversation with Novaya-Kazakhstan, Ekaterina heard about the divorce for the first time.

— I don’t know anything about divorce. She wanted a divorce, yes. But, in my opinion, they never moved from desire to action, and they are still husband and wife. If they were getting divorced, my sister and I would know about it.

The family also never lived in Novosibirsk. According to Ekaterina, her mother went there several times to attend anti-war protests as a journalist.

In Barnaul, Katya lived with her parents and a dog named Barney, a husky-wolf mix. At the age of three, Vika was taken in by Dmitry’s parents, Lyudmila and Anatoly Ponomarenko. Grandmother, grandfather and Vika are more comfortable with each other, explains Ekaterina. Despite the fact that the younger girl often visited her parents and sister, Maria developed a closer relationship with her eldest daughter. Katya calls her relationship with her mother “very good.”

“We talked like girlfriends, we had practically no secrets from each other.

When Katya was five years old, Masha sent her to the rhythmic gymnastics section. As a child, she herself practiced gymnastics, but due to an injury she was unable to continue. Katya liked gymnastics, and she achieved success: as a member of the Fanta group, she became a prize-winner of all-Russian competitions more than once. In 2015 she received two gold medals in Bulgaria. And in May 2022, a month after her mother’s arrest, she won bronze at the All-Russian “Spring Cup” and became a master of sports. After this, Katya gave up rhythmic gymnastics: there were no prospects, and she wanted to do something else. Katya completed a manicurist course.

Katya forbade all relatives from coming to her performances. “I was distracted by their presence, I looked for them with my eyes and lost concentration,” she explains. Training and training camps took up all of Katya’s free time from school. Therefore, her time with her mother was limited to simple communication.

— In my social life there was only school, training, home and sleep - that’s it. Most often, my mother and I just talked. We discussed how the day went, training and what was going on in life in general.

Despite Maria’s activism, the family tried to avoid political topics. Only the eldest daughter supports the mother's views in the family.

— The position of dad, grandparents is different from mom’s. My grandparents never said anything negative about my mother. But if any conversations about politics began, they usually ended in scandals on the part of the pope.

"Not close people"

Katya's relationship with her father is completely different.

— It so happened that we are not very close people. We tried not to contact at all.

The girl remembers that before the start of the war, her father worked as a car mechanic. In March 2023, he signed a contract with the Ministry of Defense for three months ( after the start of mobilization on September 21, 2022, all contacts became indefinite - Ed. ) and left for Donbass. He informed his family about his decision a year earlier. Dmitry Ponomarenko met the beginning of a full-scale invasion in Crimea, in Feodosia, where he went to work at a construction site. He returned to Barnaul because “there was no point in staying in such shaky territory,” says Katya.

“My mother and I reacted negatively to his decision to go to SVO. She was angry. I immediately wrote to him: “Why? Where? You have two minor children, and you are going to leave.” But he answered adamantly: “So what? How did you leave before? When the Great Patriotic War happened, there were also families. It's OK".

Dmitry Ponomarenko published the first photo in military uniform and a badge with the call sign “Ataman” on his page on May 22, 2023. In a comment he wrote: “Who needs to defend their homeland and Russians!” ( spelling preserved - editor's note ).

In June, Dmitry returned home, and in October he signed a new contract - this time for a year - and left to serve in the Lugansk region. He returned home to Barnaul earlier, in March 2024, with a wound. The daughter did not discuss the circumstances under which the man was wounded with him. Ekaterina Ponomarenko says that her father has a broken leg and he wears an “Ilizarov apparatus.” In August 2024, Dmitry posted a photo of himself on crutches on VK. After his return, the daughter and her father do not communicate; they last saw each other in May of this year. Katya noticed that her father “became more rude” to her and her sister.

The girl moved to St. Petersburg and is studying by correspondence to become a physical education teacher. Maria asked her to get a higher education, and her daughter fulfills her request. At the same time, Katya is doing what she is passionate about - working in a beauty salon as a manicurist.

“I immediately became hysterical”

When her mother was arrested, Katya became ill and did not go to school for several days. On April 25, the class teacher called the student and said that the police had come to the school and were interested in the girl.

“After this, the teachers naturally found out about what was happening. But almost everyone was neutral. The only negative thing was from the science teacher; she has a portrait of our president hanging above her bed at home. After my mother’s arrest, this teacher became not only rude, but she demanded more from me than from others. And my classmates and friends supported me very much.

On the same day, security forces came to search the small rented one-room apartment where Maria lived with her husband and eldest daughter before leaving for St. Petersburg. Even two years later, the search remains a “sore topic” for Katya. Late in the evening, the girl was returning by bus from gymnastics training. After her mother moved to St. Petersburg, she lived alone: ​​by that time, her father had already been working in Feodosia for two months. A neighbor heard Barney's dog barking and looked outside the door. On the landing, she saw at least a dozen men in civilian clothes. The woman called Dmitry's parents. Lyudmila arrived and let the security forces into the apartment. Meanwhile, Anatoly met his granddaughter at the bus stop.

“I entered the apartment and saw that [the security forces] had destroyed everything, pulled everything off the shelves - the entire floor in the apartment was strewn with our things. It’s not very pleasant, considering that I arrived tired, I want to sleep.

Even more unpleasant was the way the security forces spoke to Ekaterina.

“The brain represses negative information, and I don’t remember verbatim everything they told me, but it was in the format: “You! Give it back!” I understand that I am a child, but some kind of respect should be shown to me.

Before leaving for St. Petersburg, Maria took some of her gadgets to her father-in-laws. Therefore, during the search, only Katya’s laptop and phone were confiscated.

“And these are the most important things in our lives now.” Moreover, it was the end of 10th grade, all my assignments were stored in digital format. I already missed a lot due to training. Naturally, I immediately became hysterical. My grandmother reassured me, but it didn’t really help. Maybe because my grandparents were very worried themselves.

Three days later, the confiscated equipment was returned to Katya. She was able to pick up the rest of her things only in October 2022.

Having learned about his wife’s arrest and search, Dmitry reacted very negatively to this, says Katya. Behind her back, and later, during house arrest, to her face, he called Maria “chicken” and said that she did not think about her family.

After the search, the owner of the apartment asked the Ponomarenko family to move out. At the end of May, Dmitry returned from Crimea and together with Katya moved to another rented apartment.

“I’m glad to be in the pre-trial detention center”

On April 27, the Oktyabrsky District Court of St. Petersburg sent Ponomarenko to a pre-trial detention center. The decision was allegedly caused by the fact that one of the witnesses in the case is Ekaterina Ponomarenko (Maria collected money to pay fines from among her subscribers and readers of RusNews, including on the card of her eldest daughter). The investigation decided that mother and daughter should not live together at this time, since Maria “could influence” her child. At the end of May, the journalist was transferred from St. Petersburg to Barnaul pre-trial detention center-1.

During her imprisonment, Ponomarenko repeatedly complained about the unbearable conditions of detention: during the detention period, in a psychiatric hospital for examination, in the isolation ward. Twice she was sent to the punishment cell. In October 2022, Maria attempted suicide by cutting her veins. Due to the “torturous” conditions in pre-trial detention center No. 1, she each time asked the court to transfer her to house arrest. In November, her request was finally granted.

Maria served house arrest in the same apartment with her parents-in-law, her husband (initially he was not supposed to live there, but he moved from a rented apartment before the New Year) and her youngest daughter. Katya stayed in rented accommodation and visited her mother. The apartment of Lyudmila and Anatoly Ponomarenko is the only place where Maria was released under house arrest. Since walks, correspondence and access to the Internet are prohibited, Maria communicated only with relatives. Due to constant quarrels with Dmitry, she could not stand being at home for even two months.

Later, in a letter sent from the pre-trial detention center to her friend and colleague from RusNews Alexandra Brusser, Maria spoke about the reasons that forced her to change house arrest to a pre-trial detention center. She wrote that she submitted a request to be returned to the pre-trial detention center on January 9. “You’ll be surprised, but I’m glad to be in the pre-trial detention center; I actually took the initiative myself. It’s a pity that the judge didn’t grant the petition dated January 9, so we wouldn’t have had to reschedule the events of January 25,” Maria wrote to her friend.

That evening, January 25, Dmitry “started another conversation with a stream of insults towards me, other pacifists, and Ukrainians,” Ponomarenko recalls in the same letter. Dmitry called them traitors and suggested “killing them and hanging them.” Maria writes to Brousseur that she did not make a scandal, but calmly suggested that her husband “Google the history of the symbols V and Z.” Dmitry found information on the Internet, after which he first said that “these are all Ukrainian sites,” and then attacked his wife. Here is another quote from her letter:

“[...]sharply grabbed the larynx, the trachea. Sasha, a miracle saved me! The compressed throat made it impossible to call for help, but for some reason the parents left the room. If she lingered for a minute, and most likely... you yourself understand[...] Now I believe even more in atrocities in Ukraine, if a pro-war person is ready to tear out the trachea of ​​the mother of her children[...].”

Catherine was not at home with her grandparents at that moment. She knows about what happened from Vicki’s story. According to her, “mom and dad went out onto the balcony, and there they began to have a conflict. Then my mother came to my sister in tears.”

On the night of January 27, 2023, Ponomarenko violated the terms of house arrest by coming to the police department with a tracking bracelet on her ankle. There she stated that they “can do whatever they want with her, but she won’t go home, because they will kill her there.” Katya supported her mother in this decision:

“It may not fit in your head that a person left home and went back [to the pre-trial detention center]. But I suspect that there were threats from the pope. Probably not direct threats to life, but he could make threats. They haven't had a very good relationship for the last few years.

“I don’t believe that everything is fine with mom”

On March 16, 2022, Russian aircraft bombed a drama theater in Mariupol. Hundreds of civilians died. The exact number of victims has not been established, but it is reliably known that that attack by the Russian army resulted in the first mass death of civilians in the war in Ukraine as a result of one strike.

The next day, Maria Ponomarenko published in her telegram channel “There is no censorship” (1.6 thousand subscribers) a post about the tragedy. Later the post was removed, and the channel was renamed and stopped leading. According to investigators, the activist and journalist published “fakes” about the Russian army (paragraph “d” of part 2 of article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The prosecution requested nine years in prison.

On February 15, 2023, the Leninsky District Court of Barnaul sentenced Maria to the six years of the colony and forbade her to engage in journalism within five years after serving the sentence. Memorial recognized Ponomarenko political prisoner.

This is the first sentence to a woman on a “fake” article with real deprivation of liberty. Later, several more women were imprisoned for the “military fakes”. For seven years , Sasha Skochilenko and six and a half journalist Alsu Kurmashev (August 1, 2024 was released as part of the exchange of Russian political prisoners). In November 2024, the court sent a pediatrician Nadezhda Buyanov for 5.5 years. By the largest terms - for eight years - sentenced the mother of two children Anastasia Berezhinskaya and the nurse Olga smaller .

On the day of the trial, Katya was at school.

- Almost all the lessons I sat with the phone in my hands and waited for the sentence. When I saw, she burst into tears and left the lessons. I understood that there would be a real term, and I realized that my mother would sit for a very long time. The prosecutor requested nine years. They gave six, and for some reason it seems to me that this could be very good.

After the sentence, Maria Ponomarenko was transferred to the women's IK-6 in the village of Shipunovo, Altai Territory, two hours from Barnaul. There Maria was again in inhuman conditions: she is constantly sent to a schizo. In September, Ponomarenko announced a hunger strike in protest; When she decided to complete her and whether she completed it at all, is still unknown. In IK-6 Ponomarenko was kept until November 2023, until a new criminal case was brought against it. This time she is suspected of causing a colony for not dangerous to health. She faces before 5 years in prison. According to Catherine, employees forbid Maria to discuss legal issues by phone.

- She told briefly, literally about the fact that a new article, and that’s it. I was in shock, because she weighs 47 kilograms now with a height of 1.69 m. And the fact that she beat someone is nonsense.

In a pre -trial detention center and colonies, Catherine has never visited her mother, but really wants to make up for a lost in the summer:

- My mother and I had conversations about the arrival. Initially, she did not really want my sister and I would go to that situation, because the insulator and the colony are terrible places. Then I had to go, but because of the school and work did not work.

I really want to see my mother, but I really don't want to go there. In the pre -trial detention center, I was when I took gear, there was a very unpleasant atmosphere, it presses, and the employees rudely spoke to me. And for several hours on a date with my mother, I simply could not stand it morally.

It would be very difficult for me to be in such an environment, although I understand that she is pleased to see us.

For two and a half years of imprisonment, my mother has not changed, Katya says. Maria calls Katya every two weeks, sometimes a month. Basically, the daughter talks about her life, the mother talks restrained about her, except that he is trying to engage in “home sports” in conclusion - it makes stretching and simple exercises for which simulators are not needed. Maria also lists her daughter what to send to her in the package. In addition to food, most often she asks for cosmetics and hair dye, even to keep the blond even behind bars.

“She, of course, says to me that she is fine as possible.” But, frankly, I don’t believe in it at all. Because today she tells me that everything is fine with her, and tomorrow the post is that she is threatened, beaten in a colony or that she announced a hunger strike.

Recently, Dmitry Ponomarenko came to the investigative insulator to Mary. Soon he plans to take the younger daughter with him, Katya says. Like the older sister, the last time Vika saw her mother during house arrest.

"She has no desire to sit for 6 years"

Mother and daughter write dozens of letters to each other. Ekaterina Ponomarenko shared several excerpts with New Kazakhstan.

“I miss you,” Maria writes to her daughters. “Take care of yourself, my beloved angel ... I kiss, hug, your mother.”

“My baby, hello! I’m waiting for your letters, I miss, sometimes I cry from longing for you with Vikuska, I don’t cry because of anything else because of anything. Separation from you becomes unbearable. ”

Several times, Maria asked Katya for forgiveness: "Daughter, forgive me that everything turned out so." Catherine does not consider her mother to be guilty and sure: "So, it was necessary." Katya does not feel the lack of maternal attention, explaining this by the fact that because of sports since childhood he was used to spending a lot of time without parents.

- Sometimes longing for mom, but not much. I think it is also in children who live separately from parents. The only difference is that they can come to parents, call, write, but I can’t. It's unpleasant.

Mother and daughters did not see two years. There are four more ahead, and if Ponomarenko gives the maximum term in the second case, then all nine. Now Maria and Katya are most hoped for a new exchange of political prisoners. Probably, it can take place in February.

- I hope mom will be on the lists. We discussed it with her. At first she asked me if I would support her if she wants to exchange her. I immediately thought: "Can there be another answer, except" yes "?" Naturally, I would like to be exchanged, and she would also agree to the exchange. She has no desire to sit all her 6 years. We did not discuss our meeting at large, but it seems to me that it will be very warm and very long -awaited, with tears.

Katya hopes for an imminent meeting with her mother in Europe and does not exclude that he will support her civil and political activity.

-It is quite possible, if you still exchange, and the mother will be there, we will deal with activism already together.

Author: Irina Novik