The woman who carried the Ukrainian team placard at the Winter Olympics opening ceremony was a Russian living in Milan, who chose to perform a small act of resistance to show her support for Ukraine.
Anastasia Kucherova, an architect who has been living in Milan for 14 years, was unrecognisable in a hooded silver puffer coat, with her eyes also covered with dark glasses.
However she has since revealed that she was the volunteer who led the five Ukrainian athletes competing in Milan into San Siro to her 879 Instagram followers and in an interview with the Associated Press.
“When you walk by the side of these people you realise they have every human right to feel hatred towards any Russian,’’ she told the AP. “Still, I think it’s important to do even a small action to show them that maybe not all the people are thinking the same way.”
Kucherova said that at first the country assignments were going to be random, but the choreographer then asked if the volunteers had preferences, and she chose Ukraine.
Kucherova added that the athletes immediately recognised her origins and addressed her in Russian. That was a sign for Kucherova of “some profound connection” between Russians and Ukrainians “that obviously could live on if not for the war”.
Kucherova said that a small amount of resistance on the second anniversary of the poisoning death of dissident Alexei Navalny was a way of reminding the world that the war continues, even as life elsewhere goes on.
“Ukrainians don’t have any possibility to avoid these thoughts or to ignore the existence of war. So it is their reality,” said Kucherova. “They keep loving each other, getting married or doing sports, coming to the Olympics. But all of this is happening [against] a devastating background.”
