Of the nearly 400,000 soldiers in the Ukrainian army, 20% of them are women. While the majority of them are assigned to the rear, some fight on the front. Before achieving this, they must first face the skepticism of men.
Of the more than 400,000 soldiers currently serving in the Ukrainian armed forces, approximately twenty percent are women. The majority serve in support roles. Those on the front lines had to struggle to fight.
“Every woman in the army must show that she is worthy of being in the same combat position and fighting on an equal footing with a man” says Oleksandra, a baker before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now a sniper.
She shows her skills on a 100 meter stand somewhere in central Ukraine. On the front line, its targets can be more than a kilometer away. His work requires skills and a certain state of mind.
She says many still question her abilities because she is a woman. Women have long served in the Ukrainian armed forces. But few take part in the fighting.
His theory is that gender stereotypes can become self-fulfilling. As a sniper, you have to be invisible, she says. And women in general may be less emotionally motivated than men, she suggests. This is not a view shared by many in the military.
Olena is a soldier. Before the war, she was a communications trainer in kyiv. A few months after the full-scale invasion began, she signed up to join the army. She said she felt like she had ignored the war for too long. Now Olena is cleaning the trenches with the infantry. She had to lobby for a front-line job.
_”(The recruiter) tells me_asked: ‘Do you really want a fighting stance?’ It’s difficult. And not all commanders accept girls in combat posts… I say: I don’t care what happens with commanders! I don’t care how hard it is. I know for sure that I can!“, she explains.
Olena says she is now accepted by her peers. She was decorated for her courage by President Zelensky.
