Natallia Radzina: Masha Zaitsava Is No Victim, She’s A Warrior

• 18.01.2025, 15:24

The lessons the life of the heroic Belarusian woman teaches us.

A volunteer from Belarus, Maryja Zaitsava, died in Ukraine. Natallia Radzina, the Editor-in-Chief of the Charter97.org website, responded to this news on Facebook:

— Belarusian woman Masha Zaitsava is not a victim, but a warrior. The girl went to the protest in Minsk in 2020 and was shot at, which almost killed her. Later, she went to fight in Ukraine because she did not want to be a victim.

At first, she was a paramedic. But, as former commander of the Ukrainian Second International Legion Ruslan Miroshnichenko reported, later she was trained as a sniper. Yesterday, she died heroically near Pokrovsk.

I know many Belarusian political prisoners who, after prison, took up arms and went to the front. And their main motivation was precisely this unwillingness to be a victim.

This is not a call for everyone to go to war. But the example of Masha Zaitsava tells us one thing: stop feeling sorry for yourself and throwing ashes on your head. After all, this is what the scumbags who are torturing people in Belarus today, believing in their impunity, need.

Yes, it is difficult, having gone through many traumas and misfortunes, to get back on your feet and act. But Masha Zaitsava, who recently turned 24, managed. And this, I think, is the main thing that she told us with her heroic life.