Kateryna Prokopenko | |
---|---|
Катерина Сергіївна Прокопенко | |
Born | 1995 |
Spouse | Denys Prokopenko |
Kateryna Serhiivna Prokopenko (Ukrainian: Катерина Сергіївна Прокопенко; born 1995) is a Ukrainian illustrator, public activist, and volunteer. She is head of the Association of Azovstal Defenders' Families NGO and the "'Azovstal' Defenders' Families support" charitable fund.[1] She is married to Denys Prokopenko.[2]
Kateryna Prokopenko was born in Kyiv, Ukraine,[3] in 1995.
She met Denys Prokopenko in 2015,[2][4][5] and married him in 2019.[3]
Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she worked as an illustrator[3] (creative pseudonym — "Koza rohata"[6]).[2] Later she started volunteering.[2][4][7]
On May 11, 2022, Kateryna Prokopenko and Yuliia Fedosiuk met Pope Francis in the Vatican and addressed him with a plea to help in saving Ukrainian defenders from "Azovstal" in Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast.[8][2] After the Ukrainian servicemen were captured by the Russians, Kateryna, together with other "azovtsi" families, put all their efforts towards returning them home.[9][10][11][12][13][4]
March 23, 2023, Prokopenko filed a petition on the president's website asking to dedicate the day of May 20th to commemorate the defenders of Mariupol. As of June 7, the petition accumulated 27,000 signatures.[14]