On Mother’s Day in Russia, the outlet spoke with three well-known women about how motherhood is lived through amid war, exile, and an unending flow of news about violence. The interviewees included poet Alya Khaitlina, TV host Tatyana Lazareva, and volunteer Rita Vinokur.
Khaitlina has lived in Munich since 2012. After February 24, 2022, while in the late stage of pregnancy, she joined efforts to help Ukrainian refugees: coordinating drivers, collecting humanitarian aid, finding housing, and advising new arrivals. Later, that work expanded into an information project for people who needed help with the language and German bureaucracy.
“On February 24, 2022, I was already far along, but I was certain my child would be born after the war was over,” she recalls.
Khaitlina says volunteering became a way to hold herself together, while poetry helped her avoid breaking apart between two incompatible worlds: family routine and war. After the birth of her younger daughter Dana, she continued helping refugees. She also speaks about the shock after October 7, 2023, saying stories of families with children, including the fate of the Bibas family, were impossible to take in from a distance.
Lazareva, who has lived in Spain since 2016, said she was in Kyiv on February 24, 2022, while her children were in Moscow, Lisbon, and London. After the full-scale invasion began, part of the family left via Finland for Spain and later for Portugal. She says exile was especially hard for her daughter, whose independent life in Russia had only just begun.
Vinokur recalls combining motherhood with constant volunteer work, writing in work chats even from the maternity ward and briefing volunteers with her baby in her arms. After the events of October 7, 2023, she says she felt panic and sleeplessness acutely for the first time, constantly thinking about Israeli mothers and children.
“I hold my baby, I do not let go, I cry into his soft little crown and cannot stop thinking about those other children,” she says.
Both women describe motherhood not only as vulnerability, but also as a source of inner strength. Vinokur puts it this way: motherhood gives you the feeling that you are powerful, because you know what you are capable of.