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Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia
Covered with my body. Belgorod third-grader saves his nine-month-old sister
2024-03-19
Direct Translaiton via Google Translate. Edited.
by Anastasia Odinyan

[REGNUM] Nine-year-old Zhenya from the village of Belovskoye, Belgorod Region, became a folk hero overnight. During the shelling, the boy shielded his younger sister.

When the Ukrainian Armed Forces began shelling Belovskoye, the Lagutin family was at home. Zhenya’s mother, grandmother and two brothers were in a small room, and the boy was drawing in the hall. "My little sister was sleeping on the sofa nearby."

Suddenly - a flash, an explosion, glass flew... The boy immediately rushed to the baby, grabbed her tightly and shielded her with his back from the flying fragments, Zhenya’s mother, Margarita, tells IA Regnum. After that, he ran with her in his arms into another room, barefoot, and cut his feet.

Thanks to her brother, tiny Angelina was not seriously injured. The children were immediately taken to the trauma department of a local hospital. For the most effective treatment, a traumatologist from the federal center was called there.

When asked why Zhenya rushed to Angelina, he answers in an adult way: she’s my sister, I couldn’t do otherwise!

The whole of Russia learned about the third-grader’s feat - the governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, published this story in the official Telegram channel. In turn, the head of the RF Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, instructed to reward the Belgorod schoolboy for his heroism.

Nine-year-old Zhenya goes to school, loves to play the guitar and draw. Teachers speak positively about the boy: he studies well and always helps.

“He is the oldest child in the family. Zhenya is a friendly, open boy, studying for grades four and five. “He has a lot of friends, he communicates with everyone,” the school director told reporters.

Now Zhenya and Angelina are already at home and have been discharged from the hospital. The boy’s legs have healed and almost don’t hurt.

The head of the local Ministry of Health, Andrei Ikonnikov, said that the children promptly received the necessary medical care, after which they were sent home.

“The brother covered his sister with his body. Because of this, he was injured more than she was. They were both hospitalized, they underwent a full range of examinations, and currently their condition is close to satisfactory, which allowed them to be discharged for outpatient treatment under the supervision of doctors,” Ikonnikov said.

Margarita and Andrei Lagutin have a large family: four children. Nine-year-old Zhenya is the eldest; he has two younger brothers and a sister, Angelina. The family lives in the village of Belovskoye, Belgorod region.

“We used to have an arrival on the next street,” Margarita recalls. “But there was no such blast wave.” And this is just a nightmare, it hit with such force...”

The small but cozy two-room house was badly damaged by shelling. The blast wave tore out the windows along with their frames, damaged the casing, crumpled the floor, even the boiler flew off.

The Lagutins' house will be restored. In the meantime, grandmother Elena Artemenko sheltered a large family in her village of Shishino. It rumbles here too, but not as scary as in Belovsky, says Margarita.

“It’s banging again,” the woman shudders, “hard.”

The whole family runs into the corridor - the only suitable shelter.

“Okay, Zhenya, everyone: let’s go into the corridor,” the woman commands.

According to her, the whole family is already accustomed to “constantly banging.”

“When there’s a loud roar, adults understand what’s happening and don’t get too scared. But a three-year-old child begins to shake and starts screaming. He’s very scared,” adds Margarita.

She does not hide the fact that she dreams of a quiet life, when you don’t have to worry about a shell falling into your house, and your children risk not returning from school.

Margarita herself is now on maternity leave. The father of the family, Andrei, works a lot. And nine-year-old Zhenya helps his grandfather build a garage: he brings tools, carries bricks. Following the example of his grandfather, a former tanker who served in the GDR, he dreams of going to a cadet school and becoming a military man.

The governor of the Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, promised to do everything possible to support the Lagutin family - “for which the whole region, our whole big country is worried.”

Posted by:badanov

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