Story of Ekaterina Gopenko

My name is Ekaterina Gopenko, I am a musician. I first appeared on board of the Shtandart at the very beginning of March 2022, since I had planned a weekly participation in the voyage six months before, and at the time of February 22, 2022 was already on the way to Europe. It was at that moment that dramatic events unfolded in eastern Ukraine. I was depressed and disoriented. My family remained in Zaporizhzhya and I could not reach them. These days I cried a lot and did not understand how to live on.

“If you don’t know where to go next, stay here until you understand. You are welcome here, ”  – I was told on board of the Shtandart. And I stayed. I don’t know how I would have coped at this point in my life without the support of the people I met on the ship. A team and volunteers from Russia, France, Spain, Ukraine – these people took care of me, tried to help by all possible means.
By April 2022, I came to my senses a little and was able to play music again. I started giving concerts right from the side of the ship, which was then in the port of Port de Bouc. At these events, we collected donation in support of the Zaporizhzhya Regional Children’s Hospital – a hospital in my native city, where at that moment injured children were brought from the front line. They constantly lacked dressings and medicines, they asked for any help.

We continued this practice of concerts, later I played on board the ship during maritime festivals and organised online concerts.
I lived on Standart for almost six months. Almost from the very beginning of my stay, the Ukrainian flag was raised on board as a sign of support. When I learned that the frigate was banned from entering European ports under the pretext that it was a ship nominally considered Russian, I was struck by this monstrous injustice. Judging people by their passport is the same as judging by their skin colour. None of us choose which country to be born in. Why can’t we evaluate each other by actions, and reward or punish based on this? And in my deep conviction, there is nothing to punish the Shtandart and its team for. On the contrary, we should reward them for teaching people from different countries to live and work side by side, instead of hating or despising each other.

Isn’t that the only way to save humanity from self-destruction? Isn’t that what we all have to learn in the end of the day if we want to survive as a species?