MOSCOW, Mar 21World powerlifting champion Maryana Naumova responded to a video message from the actor, seven-time Mister Olympia title holder, ex-governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger to the Russian people about the special operation in Ukraine. In his address, published on March 17, Schwarzenegger called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the special operation and accused the Russian authorities of aggravating the situation in Ukraine. Naumova has visited Donbass more than 20 times since 2014, where she visited more than 120 schools. «Mr. Schwarzenegger, I'm sure you remember me. In 2015, at the Arnold Classic tournament in the USA, I, a 15-year-old girl from Russia, set a world record, pressing a barbell weighing 150 kilograms. You congratulated me, asked about Russia, and I cried with joy. You seemed so sensitive, kind and smart to me. I brought letters and photographs for you from the children of the warring Donbass, which by March 2015 I visited twice. Yes, I couldn’t stay at home in Moscow when Ukraine declared war on Donbass. I told you that in the spring of 2015 I would go to the USA again for competitions and, perhaps, I would see you, and these children, ordinary schoolchildren from Lugansk and Donetsk republics began to write letters and send photos with a request to give them to you.They told the Terminator how they live in war, asked for help, the simplest advice on how to play sports in such difficult conditions, how to develop, become a successful person. Yata saw you as a strong hero who, they hoped, could protect them,» Naumova said in a video posted on the Russian Hour YouTube channel. The athlete said that after watching Schwarzenegger's appeal, she concluded that the American did not work with children's letters. She stated that his appeal is based on a different reality, and the real reality is «on the Alley of Angels in Donetsk, where everyone can read the names of children who were killed by mines and bullets of the Ukrainian army.» The athlete added that the «Terminator» not only did not protect and save the children of Donbass, but also did not read their letters in order to familiarize themselves with the situation. «Skynet», which will be guilty of the death of mankind? Russia's military special operation does not have the goal of destroying the Ukrainian people. It is aimed at the neo-Nazi «Skynet», which over the years has completely subjugated Ukraine and was close to turning into an uncontrollable monster, a dangerous for all neighbors, not only for Russia. Mr. Schwarzenegger, please find and re-read the letters that the children of Donbass wrote to you in 2015,» Naumova added. She also said that she plans to go to Donbass again in the near future to visit schools and invited the actor to come and see everything with his own eyes.
