The Ukrainian military is one of the most feminized armed forces in Europe, according to the country’s deputy minister of defense. The common experience of war brings an understanding of the scale and nature of the contributions that Ukraine’s women are making to protect and defend their country. This shared understanding, reinforced by everyday encounters with women veterans who are friends, neighbours and family, might mean these women’s experiences will be valued in the years to come. Ukraine’s commitment towards addressing women’s needs and rights is reflected in the government’s strategic documents for the next decade.
A number of flashy cars were parked outside, in a part of Jerusalem ordinarily populated by construction workers and wholesalers. Responding to allegations that the hotel was a brothel, the Welfare Ministry says it still did not know if this was the case. Just a few days after the story came out in the Israeli press, the authorities found another hotel and moved everyone.
- Ivanova and Petrovskaya both took over their fathers’ farms, putting them among the 10,000 or so women in Ukraine who run a farming enterprise—about 20% of agricultural managers.
- Given equal fighting status with men in 2018, women today make up to 22 per cent of Ukraine’s armed forces, although their numbers on the front line remain small.
- “The women hear about these jobs mostly from Israeli men posting in Telegram and other social media channels, jobs that sound glamorous with fantastic salaries.
Ukrainian women’s contribution to the fight against Russia “will change the role of women in society,” said Alla Kuznietsova, who spied on the Russians during the occupation of Izium. “I heard, ‘You’re a woman, you need to make babies, go home,’” said Anastasia Blyshchyk, 26, who initially was rebuffed when she volunteered. Rather than sitting on a long waiting list to serve, like many other Ukrainians, she reached out to commanders and found one who said he could use her. The involvement of women is a reminder that half the human resources in any society are female, even if countries don’t always appreciate that.
‚Life Had Not Prepared Me For It‘
Alongside the parties, the hotel offered jobs to the Ukrainians staying there. Ukrainians who have fled the war playing chess in a windowless room in a hotel in Jerusalem, June 2022. Katya Chehova came to Israel in the spring of 2022 in a desperate bid to save her left leg after shrapnel from a Russian missile strike left her unable to walk. In Israel, doctors managed to not only save her leg but also get her walking again, with Chehova’s evacuation and arrival broadcast on Israel’s Channel 12 news. It’s like having a double-faced policy — yes, you can work, but at the same time it’s doing its best to prevent them from doing so. I feel the blame should be first pointed at the Interior Ministry for leaving these people vulnerable,” says Ben-Dor.
There, she lived in “inhuman” conditions with 28 other women in a cell designed for four. But the hardest part was “being cut off from the outside world,” she said. In mid-May, Panina was among hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to an uncertain fate after weeks of hiding in bunkers and tunnels at Azovstal. She was then held captive for four and a half months in the notorious Russian-controlled Olenivka prison in Donetsk, where dozens of captives were killed in a deadly strike in July.
Ukraine’s need for women in war conflicts with nation’s gender norms, VCU professor’s new research finds
With the real risk of sexual exploitation or human trafficking, women are trusted more readily when it comes to registering those internally displaced by the war, a number currently put at more than 4.5 million. They organize transport to take the displaced to safety in neighbouring countries, and female psychologists are providing mental health counselling after the First Lady, Olena Zelenska, launched a programme of psycho-social support with UN agencies.
Many Ukrainian female combatants mention in interviews with journalists that they must avoid captivity by any means and that they are ready to die rather than being captured by the Russians. One indication of the recognition of women’s presence in the military and society’s rating of their contributions was when National Defenders’ Day was renamed in 2021 as the Day of Men and Women Defenders of Ukraine. Only a handful of cases of using services from trafficking victims get prosecuted. I’m happy for the family and overjoyed that they will be reunited,” Kuleba https://thegirlcanwrite.net/ wrote in a Facebook post on Monday. “Mothers and daughters were in captivity and their relatives were waiting for them,” he wrote, adding that 12 civilians were among the women freed. Thirty-seven women who had been captured after Russian forces took over Mariupol’s besieged steel plant in May were also released.
The Ukrainian military has tried to adopt more equal policies, but those have faced pushback from Ukrainian society, which largely sees women’s place in society as guardians of the home and family. This past year, I’ve been focused on how the human cost of the war has been felt unevenly, as Iwrote in the Washington Postlast March. Part of why the human cost is uneven is due to Ukrainian military policy decisions.
