Kateryna Prokopenko

In this name that follows East Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Serhiivna and the family name is 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
Катерина Прокопенко
Born	1995 Kyiv, Ukraine
Spouse	Denys Prokopenko

Kateryna and Denys Prokopenko

Biography

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]

Russian invasion of Ukraine

See also: Association of Azovstal Defenders' Families

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" (Azovian) 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 20 to commemorate the defenders of Mariupol. As of June 7, the petition accumulated 27,000 signatures.^[14]