Veterans of the Great Patriotic War tell children of Zaporozhye how they defended Motherland

On April 30, at the invitation of the rector Protopriest Oleg Semenchuk, a meeting of the veterans of the Great Patriotic War, participants in military actions with pupils of Sunday schools of the Right-Bank Deanery and the Orthodox children's home "Hope" was held at the Intercession Cathedral of Zaporozhye, writes the website of the diocese.

Three veterans of the war who survived to the respectable old age: Yevgeny Reshetnikov, Nadezhda Lisitsa and Alexandra Skripniuk, told the children about the ordeal that fell on their youth. They remembered how the war destroyed their young hopes, how they went through many sufferings and difficulties that tempered their will and vitality.

Alexandra Semenovna, a paramedic of the hospital of the Volga Flotilla, transported the wounded from Stalingrad. She said how, not remembering herself, finding no time even for fear, young medical workers day and night saved the wounded, forgetting about sleep and food. Having gone the war paths, the Komsomol activist Alexandra Skripniuk became a deeply Christian believer. She told the children that without God it was impossible to build a decent life and suffer unpredictable difficulties.

Yevgeny Reshetnikov is a fighting machine gunner from a glorious family. His grandfather and father were icon painters, his brother – a pilot, the Hero of the Soviet Union, the author of many books about the war, his uncle Fedor Reshetnikov was a famous artist, who headed the Academy of Arts and wrote famous paintings: "AGAIN TWO", "ARRIVED FOR HOLIDAYS" and many others.

Yevgeny Vasilyevich was reticent , he sincerely, wholeheartedly wished our children to live a bright, happy life and live to the age of the veterans present. And they all are over 90.

Nadezhda Lisitsa remembered how, being a young girl, she volunteered to join the front, graduated from the auto-armor school and became a driver of the famous " 1/2 ton truck". For three years she transported shells and bombs to military aviation. In the cabin of the truck, she slept and ate, working day and night.

As a gratitude, the children of Sunday schools and the children's home "Hope" presented a musical and poetic concert to the guests.

Fr. Oleg thanked the veterans for their military feat and congratulated them on the coming holiday of the Great Victory. The meeting ended with tea-drinking with Easter cakes.