Confession of a Korean who restored Mariupol: “In Moscow, I stand on the porch”

60-year-old Korean Vladimir Kim has been collecting alms for a ticket to Kaliningrad for several days in the square of the December armed uprising near the Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro station. Last year, tempted by the promised salaries, he rebuilt the destroyed Mariupol. I made good money, I was able to repay the loan, but then I got sick. The MK reporter listened to the confession of an unusual homeless man.

“Good nice people, please help.” With these words, Vladimir’s request, barely readable on the cardboard, begins to collect for a ticket home, to Kaliningrad. Kim carries the collected funds in his pants pockets. Behind him is a light backpack, in which toothpaste, brush, deodorant and a raincoat.

“My life has gone downhill in recent years,” Vladimir Kim shares with MK. – For several days I live between heaven and earth. But I do not despair, I am strong. Although after the second chemotherapy he lost weight. When he was healthy, he weighed under 80 kg. Now – 60.

I am from Khabarovsk. He served in the border troops, on the border between Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. He returned from the army in 1986. 12 years of taekwondo and martial arts engaged. He graduated from the Institute of Architecture and Construction with a degree in restorer.

Vladimir was married to a Korean woman whom he met in Khabarovsk. And then everything went like in Pushkin’s fairy tale. For the sake of his wife’s business, Kim sold his house. When this money was not enough for the wife, the husband took a loan from the bank.

– Once my wife told me: “I want to do business, Korean cosmetics. I need three million. I sold my small old house, but she didn’t have enough money either, so I took 1.3 million from the bank. The wife went to Korea for her own business and disappeared for a while. Didn’t call, didn’t write. The mother-in-law said that she was allegedly thrown there. Then the wife returned, offered to get a divorce. Well, at least I still have a one-room apartment left. My daughter lives in South Korea, where she successfully married a local Korean. My family does not help me with money, my daughter says: “With these sanctions, dad, all Korean banks have been banned from making transfers to Russia.”

And the loan had to be repaid. Kim went to work as a shift worker to restore Mariupol.

– I worked in Mariupol for several months – from November last year until this spring, I repaired the facades of houses and apartments. He lived with the workers in a rented house. There were 13 of us: Russians, Belarusians, two Tajiks. I’m the only one who’s Korean. While the weather was cold, we were engaged in interior decoration – plastering, puttying, wallpapering, removing debris after all these bombings. Materials were transported by ferry from Russia via Rostov, Taganrog. Later, the territory was put in order, some houses were restored, others were destroyed, new ones were built in their place. Already in the spring he was engaged in laying gas blocks in the walls of monolithic houses. All houses are the same. 80% of Mariupol residents received apartments in new buildings with playgrounds, clinics and schools – we built all this.

Mariupol was 60% broken city. People are afraid to work there, because they can hear how they bang, they shoot in the distance, shells fly. But half of Mariupol has already been rebuilt, trams have already been launched and trolleybuses are running. Markets and shops are open. Life is getting better! How else?

I worked there for a short time. Until spring, everything was fine, I almost closed a bank loan with the money from the watch. And in the spring, intermediaries began to fool us with wages. From 120,000 it dropped to 100,000, after 80,000, and so on to 60,000.

Then fate threw Vladimir into the Crimea. But there he was also deceived. He collected some pennies and came to work in Moscow.

– I know Moscow well – I worked in the capital for almost 10 years. Here I laid gas blocks at a construction site near the Rasskazovka metro station. There I became ill, and I ended up in the hospital with oncology. The doctors diagnosed him with stage II lung cancer. A month was treated: after a week of therapy, you rest for a week. He barely endured the second therapy, he refused the third one – he could no longer walk, he fell, they shot him all over. He asked the doctors to buy me a ticket, offered to write a receipt. But when you tell people the truth, they don’t believe.

Recently, while going to the store for water, my wallet was stolen. I got sick. I sat at the airport for two days, waiting for a transfer from my friends. The answer is silence. People have become callous, most of them pass by. I understand that everyone has their own concerns. Now I need to save 15,000 for a ticket to Kaliningrad.

Kim complains that no one believes him, and they don’t lend him a ticket. He turned to various funds, but they answered me that they could not help. They offered to go to points near the stations where they feed the homeless.

“The police don’t touch me,” Vladimir continues. – Patrolmen look at the document, see that the passport is in order, that I am not drunk, and they walk past. People look at my clean white socks and are surprised, they say that I don’t look like a bum.

The Koreans I met in Moscow are no longer the same, they dryly say: “Oh, we have no time, we have our own problems!” None of the Koreans I met even gave me 10 rubles. And Orthodox Russians serve something. He stood near the church, begging for alms. I collected 3.5 thousand. Two men gave me a thousand each, a woman – a thousand, today I earned 500 rubles.

I spend a little on food – on a bun and milk. Yesterday I went to the diner to brush my teeth. Sat at the table to rest. A young guy noticed me, sat eating and suddenly asks “Are you hungry?”. And he bought me a lunch with a burger, fries and juice. I didn’t ask, he just saw my condition. I also want to live. I want to recover, to return to Kaliningrad, I will find my own business there and will not go anywhere else for a long ruble.