So they got married and now plan to live happily ever after.
EuroMaidan Revolution activist Liza Shaposhnik, who has cerebral palsey, and Russian Vitaliy Popov, another activist, got married two weeks ago, just a week after they met on Independence Square. They want 10 children.
“I love children, so the more the better,” Popov laughs.
Shaposhnik and Popov are members of the Kremlin-feared Right Sector, the militant wing of the revolution that played a key role in getting President Viktor Yanukovych to flee power on Feb. 22.
Popov came to Kyiv for the New Year, got involved in the protests and stayed. “On Feb. 19, I met people who invited me to join Right Sector and so I did,” Popov said. His job was reconnaissance. “You know I have very tourist appearance so can take pictures and film staff pretending to be a tourist,” he says.
Their relationship blossomed when they got assigned recently to spy on a Russian agent.
“We knew each other before, not much though, but on that day we finally got time to talk and decided not to waste time,” Shaposhnik says.
She was actually the one who proposed.
He wanted to, but worried about not being able to support her.
“I don’t have a job here and I was worried that I won’t be able to buy even flowers for her,” he says. “She said maybe let’s get married and I said I’ll think.”
The couple went to the registration office in an armored vehicle decorated with balloons. Fellow activists helped put on the wedding dinner and found an apartment for the couple. The young bride chose a traditional Ukrainian embroidered shirt, or vyshyvanka, and khaki trousers to get married in. “A gown is not suitable when it is war in the country. I think I’ll wear one later for the church ceremony when peace comes,” she explains.
The young woman from Donetsk Oblast started volunteering at a EuroMaidan kitchen in December and became popular right away. Cerebral palsy limits Shaposhnik’s arm movements significantly. Her task in the kitchen was to remove tags from teabags used for serving protesters. Later, EuroMaidan activists even named a kitchen in the Trade Union Building after her. The kitchen was later destroyed by fire during a government attack on the building.
Popov says he knew about her before they met.
“I knew she was disabled and was admiring her strong will…she is not disabled for me. When I met her, I saw a beautiful young woman,” he says.
Popov and Shaposhnik say it was true love at first sight.
“We are both Christians and human beings and, as you see, not all the Russians are enemies, some fight on our side,” Shaposhnik said. “He is very attentive to me, we do everything together and unlike other men my husband likes to cook.”
Shaposhnik’s family still doesn’t know since she and her parents took different sides in the conflict. “My mother believes there are fascists here,” she says sadly.
Popov’s parents gave their blessing to the couple on the telephone.
They are hoping that peace breaks out.
“I think we’ll find work on the Internet and then buy a small house in Carpathians to live and raise our children there, this is our dream,” Popov says. “I already imagine how we sit there old watching the mountains and our grandchildren run around.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected]
