‘It’s a way of life’: Women are making their mark in the Ukrainian military

On the front lines just outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, a 32-year-old Ukrainian artillery platoon commander rocked back and forth in the passenger seat of a beaten-up Lada while another soldier navigated the car through a dense forest, sometimes mowing. cutting down young trees. When they reached their destination, a small village less than two miles from the Russian lines, only ruined houses remained, their shattered roofs visible in the moonlight.

The commander, a female soldier who uses the call sign Witch, is a former lawyer who, along with two of her brothers and her mother, joined the army the day after Russia invaded in February 2022. Her first combat experience came in the suburbs. of Kiev that year, and much of what she has learned about weapons systems since then has been self-taught and on-the-fly.

Since the beginning of 2023, Witch has been with her platoon at the 241st Brigade in the area around Bakhmut and oversees all artillery systems. She is determined to stay in the army even when the war is over. “People who want to join the armed forces need to understand that it is a way of life,” she said.

As Ukraine struggles with intense Russian attacks and losses mount, there has been a wave of women enlisting and increasingly volunteering for combat roles. The Ukrainian military has also made a concerted effort to recruit more women to fill its ranks.

Currently, about 65,000 women serve in the Ukrainian armed forces, an increase of about 30 percent since the start of the war. About 45,000 serve as military personnel, and the rest hold civilian positions, according to the Defense Department. Just over 4,000 are in combat positions.

Unlike Ukrainian men, there is no compulsory military service for women; However, women with a medical or pharmaceutical degree must register for the service.

These women are filling a growing number of positions in the military: combat medics in assault units; senior gunners; snipers; commanders of tank units and artillery batteries; and at least one medevac team co-pilot who dreams of becoming Ukraine’s first female attack helicopter pilot. Dozens have been injured in the battle, and some have been killed or captured.

Along the front lines, they operate under the same blanket of fear and hardship as male soldiers. In the damp, fortified shelter where Witch and one of her mortar teams spent most of their days, they waited in near darkness in the basement. Switching on the lights would mean that the crew would not be able to quickly adjust their eyes to the dark if they had to go outside to shoot.

Farther north, a commander with the call sign Tesla, a former Ukrainian folk singer, sat hunched on a stool in the bare house that served as field headquarters for the 32nd Mechanized Brigade. Russian forces in the Kupiansk region rained artillery fire on Ukrainian lines.

Tesla simultaneously sent text messages and voice notes to the soldiers in her unit as she spoke to the second-in-command about the battlefield plan. Her oversized pants were rolled up, revealing neon orange socks with cartoon avocados on them.

She attempted to divert Russian fire on another battalion to her own soldiers’ position so that the other unit could evacuate a comrade who had been badly wounded. “Three tourniquets on three different limbs,” came a voice message, she said.

“Send one more,” Tesla ordered through a ballot, ordering her soldiers to fire again. “When you’re done, let me know.”

Shortly after a Russian attack began in October, overwhelming Ukrainian lines, 24 of its artillery-trained soldiers were ordered to reinforce infantry forces, which are always closest to Russian lines. Tesla talked to them before they were deployed and felt helpless.

“The worst part is that I have instructed them on completely different things in artillery, and then they are sent to the infantry,” she said. “And imagine them standing there looking at you as their commander, knowing they’re going to be sent into the worst situation.”

Of the 24 sent forward, 15 were wounded, Tesla said, and one was captured during the fighting. The incident continued to weigh on Tesla’s conscience, but she kept her concerns to herself. Her mother still did not know that Tesla led an artillery battery, thinking that her daughter worked as an instructor at an academy, a safe distance from the front.

Until 2018, women were banned from holding combat positions in the Ukrainian army, although some ignored the rules. Restrictions have been relaxed since the Russian invasion. The induction of thousands more female soldiers into the military is largely seen as a welcome step for the country, whose efforts to join NATO and the European Union are still under review.

The downside is that the military has not been able to adapt quickly enough to accommodate them. Female soldiers say there is still a dire lack of women’s clothing and boots, properly fitted body armor and feminine hygiene products. That allows women to acquire many items themselves.

As a result, organizations like Veteranka and Zemliachky have helped fill the gap by raising money for items tailor-made for women.

But the problems go deeper, into issues of gender-related inequality and discrimination.

Many women who served in combat roles said male soldiers and immediate superiors largely did not discriminate on the basis of gender – although sexual innuendos and inappropriate comments still occur.

Rather, it is senior commanders, often holdovers from the Soviet era, who look down on women in the military, especially those in combat roles. In some cases, women choose to join newly formed brigades with younger, more dynamic commanders.

“I didn’t want to join a brigade that was created many years ago because I knew they wouldn’t listen to me as a young officer and as a woman,” Tesla said.

In one case, a brigade commander was so outraged by a woman commanding an artillery battery that he directly belittled her. “You crawl back to me on your knees and beg to leave when you realize the job is too difficult, and I won’t let you leave your post,” she recalled him saying, requesting anonymity to speak candidly about to talk about a sensitive topic. .

Claims of sexual harassment have also surfaced. According to some women, there are no official channels for reporting harassment other than to battalion commanders, who must then decide whether to follow up. In some cases, female soldiers say, witnesses may refuse to testify for fear of repercussions.

These barriers, as well as the potential to harm their military careers, discourage women from reporting harassment, female soldiers said.

Diana Davitian, a Defense Department spokeswoman, said the military launched a hotline Jan. 1 for soldiers to report sexual harassment. The reports would be investigated, she said, and action would be taken if the allegations were found to be true.

The ministry also said it planned to create a separate unit dedicated to ensuring gender equality and providing educational programs, including a unit focused on combating war-related sexual violence.

Back in the basement, Tesla received a call from the command post: it was time to shoot. The team scrambled into a partially covered courtyard a few yards away, where a mortar barrel lay ready.

There was silence as Kuzya, 20, a senior rifleman in the mortar platoon, looked through the scope and read the coordinates on her phone. “Firework!” someone shouted. Several more rounds were broadcast before the team scrambled back into the basement to await a possible return of the Russians.

Just months earlier, Kuzya’s friend was killed during the fighting. She and Witch, who has a seven-year-old son whom she has barely seen in the past year, seemed to find comfort in each other’s company. The two women trained at the same judo club in Kiev, the capital, and the day after the invasion they went to the recruitment office together to register.

For many women, war and the desire to go into battle feels like something they have been preparing for for years. Foxy, 24, a former barista turned gunman and medic, volunteered to make camouflage netting after school during her teenage years before working with wounded veterans. She joined the army last year after weeks of training.

Her battalion commander gave her two options: “You are a woman. You can work with documents or cook borscht,” Foxy recalls. “I had no choice but to complete the paperwork until I changed battalions.”

She subsequently became part of a mortar team in some of the most intense frontline fighting in Bakhmut, and was treated as an equal by her team. “Although I faced a certain amount of sexism early on,” she said, “I feel like I don’t have to prove anything or convince anyone of what I can do.”

That’s a sentiment echoed by Kateryna, 21, a lieutenant and pilot of an Mi-8 medical evacuation helicopter. Kateryna has yet to fly her first medevac mission, but she hopes to become Ukraine’s first female fighter pilot.

Ukrainian society is also gradually overcoming its skepticism toward women serving in the military. For now, it is up to the new generation of women and their allies who will also be better able to tackle discrimination and sexual harassment.

Evelina Riabenko reporting contributed.