"We Should Have Done This Back In 2020"

The story of a brave mother of many children, who returned her Order to Lukashenka in protest.

Four daughters, three sons... Germany sheltered a mother of many children, Olena Yakavishyna, who returned the Order of the Mother to Lukashenka. A week ago, the father of the children, Yury Yakavishyn, joined the family. The Belavia company, where the man worked for the last 10 years, did not prolong his employment contract.

“Belarusians, don’t be silent!..” urged the mother of seven children, a citizen of Ukraine, Olena Yakavishyna in her video message on the third day of the full-scale war in Ukraine. "I do not want my children to live in such a country. I did not give birth to them for that. This is not a country where you can live in peace and raise children."

"I am completely imbued with Ukrainian culture"

On March 25, the woman returned the Order of the Mother to the one on whose behalf she received this award - Lukashenka ("You have lost my respect and my trust as the head of state"). Later, she left Belarus with her children, from the country where she had lived for more than 15 years. Now the Yakavishyn family lives in the small German town of Neustadt-Glewe. Olena Yakavishyna admitted in a conversation with Belsat that in the 15 years she spent in Belarus, she never wanted to change Ukrainian citizenship to Belarusian. She also registered all her children as citizens of Ukraine.

“I did not want to. I didn't feel Belarusian. It wasn't in my blood... I felt Ukrainian. This culture is in me, these songs are in me, my childhood that I spent there. This steppe, this climate. I have been completely imbued with Ukrainian culture since childhood," says Olena.

She was born and raised in Mykolaiv, where until recently her mother and younger sisters lived. Olena's father worked in Soviet times at the Black Sea Shipyard, where, by the way, the now-famous "Russian warship" was built: the Moskva cruiser, flooded by the Ukrainian Neptunes. "During Soviet times, almost half of the city worked at this plant," Olena says. Her mother worked in a kindergarten.

Olena graduated from a secondary school in Mykolaiv (“Russian-speaking at that time,” she emphasizes), then trained to be a dressmaker. She went to Minsk to her aunt, who invited her niece "to practice" in her small studio. So Belarus turned out to be a second home for Olena.

She accidentally met her future husband Yuri at a public transport stop in Minsk.

"I said that I was from Ukraine. Well, somehow it touched him and we began to see each other. Yura was born in Belarus, but he always liked Ukraine. And his roots are from there: his dad is Ukrainian. Yury has always felt like a real Ukrainian. That's why it hurts him a lot, he is very worried... ” Olena says.

"I don't need it, no I don't..."

In 2020, the father of many children, Yury Yakavishyn, together with other civil aviation workers in Belarus, spoke out against the violence and brutality with which protests were suppressed in Belarus. At the trial, he was found guilty under the "people's article" 23.34 of the Administrative Violations Code and spent 15 days behind bars.

His wife Olena, was awarded the Order of the Mother in 2019. She admits that she wanted to return the award to the state in 2020.

“I should have done this a long time ago, back in 2020, when they started detaining, imprisoning and beating people. Then I still carried this thought in my head that it was wrong, that the government should not behave like this. And the person who gave me this Order – I don't need it, I don't need it… I don't know, maybe I didn't have the heart. Everything stirred up inside with the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine,” Olena Yakavishyna recalls.

She says that when she recorded the video message on February 27 - crying - she no longer felt any doubts or fear. There was only fear for Ukraine and for relatives, for my mother and sisters who lived in the first month of the war in a cellar with potatoes on the outskirts of Mykolaiv hiding from Russian bombs. And the bombs flew to Ukraine, including from the territory of Belarus.

"Back then it didn’t matter what they would do to me and what they would accuse me of. There was no fear. I was outraged by injustice and cruelty. Therefore, I decided on this gesture - to protest. I thought maybe it would inspire anyone...” Olena says.

“They are not obliged to return their Orders, but…”

The woman does not regret this gesture, the return of her Order, at all. By the way, it was not Lukashenka himself who awarded it to her in 2019 (“I was lucky, I didn’t shake his hand”), but the deputy head of the Minsk Frunzensky District Administration.

As she recalls, everything was then strange for her. At least the fact that she, a citizen of Ukraine, was offered to become a laureate by the initiative of the administration officials. Although, as she says, mothers who had five or more children usually applied for the award on their own. Then Olena agreed. She admits that at that moment she felt pride both for her family and for Belarus. In 2019, Olena and Yury had five children, twins Pavlo and Evelina were born only in 2021.

“Collecting documents, some database searches, briefing on the dress code. Nothing bright or glamorous. Dresses of certain colours, shoes. They really clarified this.

So all of us were dressed nicely, but restrained. Bright manicure - Lord forbid! The awarding took place in the House of Representatives...” Olena recalls.

She says that, by and large, the status of a mother with the Order did not give her any special privileges or benefits. Only the right to retire at 50 years old. The laureates were presented, however, with a cash prize of five basic values per hand during the awards ceremony.

The fact that other Belarusian heroine mothers did not follow Yakavishyna after the outbreak of the war and did not begin to return the awards to Lukashenka, Elena now treats with understanding.

“Not everyone can leave their home, their relatives and leave. It's difficult, actually. On the one hand, I understand these mothers. They are not obliged to return their Orders, regardless of who awarded them. They deserved the Orders: giving birth and raising five or more children is really hard. But it was possible to talk about what was happening in other ways ...” Olena Yakavishyna says.

“German is a difficult language, but there is no way back”

Viktor is 14 years old, Viktoria is 12, Volodymyr is 11, Valeria is 9, Margarita is 4, twins Pavlo and Evelina are 9 months old. It's not easy for the children of Olena and Yury Yakavishyn right now. New language, culture, new people and buildings around.

At first, it was difficult for the mother to explain the need for another move since only two years ago they changed Minsk to Smaliavichy. Just adapted - and again at the beginning.

“At first it was rejection. How will we go? Where are we going? Here is our home and our friends! Poor they, just adapted and arranged their lives in the yard and at school.

I say, well, imagine that we are going just for a trip, besides, we have never been to Europe. Well, the elders thought and said that it was cool and they really hadn’t been anywhere much, so why not, you can find friends everywhere,” the mother says.

She says with love that the children are now attending language courses. The elder Viktor "grows up a polyglot", very capable of languages. He is very similar to his father in such things. Yury speaks English and French. Now he've started German. He has such a profession that he will not be left without a job in Germany.

“German is a difficult language, but there is no way back,” Olena smiles.

“What would I say to Lukashenka? I would suggest that he come to his senses!”

The family was reunited. Olena's mother, who left Mykolaiv in March, came to the Yakavishyn family. She has already found a job in a kindergarten. Olena's three younger sisters also left Ukraine. But their husbands stayed behind to defend their homeland. Other relatives too. Because every night is a traditional family cross-talk. And constant monitoring of Ukrainian news. But also Belarusian…

“Ask him what is heard in the case of Ales Liubenchuk?” I hear during the conversation the voice of Olena's husband, Yury. The author of these lines could not give any encouraging answer.

“What would I say to Lukashenka? Same thing I said. Let him think about the consequences of what he does. Let him come to his senses and stop his actions. To stop acting under the dictation of Russia and Putin.

I really want Belarus to live well, to live no worse than Europe. After all, no matter what they say, the citizens of Europe now live much better than the Belarusians. Let Belarus slowly move there,” Olena Yakavishyna says.

In a February video message, a woman, addressing Lukashenka, said that he had betrayed not only his people but also all his neighbours, Ukrainians. Later, her husband Yury Yakavishyn was fired from his job at Belavia, where he worked for more than 10 years (they did not prolong his employment contract). Whether Yury's dismissal was connected with the act of his wife, who returned the Order of the Mother to the state, one can only guess. We also do not know what the state does with the returned awards.