Eighty-three-year-old Nadiia Fedorova was killed in March 2022 during Russian airstrikes on Mariupol at her apartment building located at 47 Metalurhiv Avenue. The blast wave shattered the windows of her apartment, and she was injured by glass fragments. The terror she experienced caused her heart to stop.
“Her life began with war — during one of the harshest winters of the Second World War. When Aunt Nadiia was three years old, her family fled on foot from occupied Stalingrad. Walking alongside her was her four-year-old sister, while their mother carried nine-month-old twin daughters in her arms. They traveled nearly ninety kilometers through bitter cold. One of the infant sisters was killed by a stray bullet, and the other froze to death. Their mother managed to save only two daughters — Nadiia and her older sister Valentyna. They reached Kalach-on-Don having lost everything. After the war, the family remained there, and in 1947 their younger sister Ania, my mother, was born,” recalled her niece Olena.
Nadiia Fedorova was born on October 4, 1938, in Russia. She graduated from the Donetsk Polytechnic Institute and was assigned to work in Mariupol. She devoted many years to the construction industry, working for Metalurhbud in Mariupol — a company involved in building industrial facilities, workshops, and large structures, including projects for the Azovstal steel plant and the Illich Iron and Steel Works.
Over the years, Nadiia built an impressive professional career and became the head of a technical department. Many builders and construction managers knew her as an exceptionally responsible specialist and a person of integrity.
“Thousands of blueprints passed through her hands. She was an engineer who not only worked with documentation but also deeply understood the realities of construction work. She contributed to the development of industrial facilities and residential districts in Mariupol, the city to which she dedicated her entire life. She was respected by colleagues, builders, and engineers — by everyone who worked with her,” Olena added.
Russia’s full-scale invasion found Nadiia Fedorova in Mariupol.
The exact date of her death is unknown; it occurred approximately between March 1 and March 3, 2022.
“My mother, Nadiia’s younger sister, asked neighbors to help bury her in the courtyard of the apartment building. Her body was wrapped in a carpet and laid to rest near the house. A few days later, new airstrikes destroyed an entire entrance section of the building from the first to the ninth floor. Many people were killed. Later, representatives of the so-called ‘DPR’ removed the bodies. To this day, I do not know where my aunt is buried. Her life began during one war, and another war ended it almost eighty years later,” Olena said.
Nadiia Fedorova is survived by her niece, Olena.
Her younger sister, Anna, was killed in Mariupol on March 21, 2022.
At 9:00 a.m., Ukraine observes the national minute of silence. The Donetsk Regional Military Administration and the Memorial platform “Killed by Russia” honor the memory of Donetsk Oblast residents who were killed by Russian forces.