“Why did you abandon your children? Do you make a lot of money in the army?” they asked Vatra, mother of a boy and a girl. “You are serving them instead of raising them. You should stay at home,” they commented to Bilka, mother of two girls. “What if you die? If you’re not a mother, you’re nothing,” Ruta, a mother of three, must have read on her social networks.
The testimonies of these Ukrainian soldiers reflect the difficult path towards equality between men and women in the army in the midst of the Russian invasion. They come from the Veteranka campaign, which seeks to normalize the presence of women in their country’s armed forces. Prejudices and stereotypes are not only found in the trenches, but also in society and families. “Being a woman in the army means facing the doubts of others every day,” emphasizes combat medic Katerina Priimak, head of this independent initiative.
“My dream is that some of them become generals. » The one who aspires to this challenge is Oksana Grigorieva, 49 years old and gender manager of the army. Until last May and since 2022, he held this position in the Army, which means that he has already been involved in this challenge for several years. However, what lies ahead is not an easy task, as many, she points out, continue to view women as cooks or seamstresses rather than snipers or tank drivers.
There are currently around 72,000 women in the Ukrainian army, or around 7% of the army’s one million soldiers. Among them, 19,000 hold civilian positions, like Grigorieva. Some 5,500 are deployed in combat zones. The compulsory draft of men aged 25 to 60 under martial law in 2022 reduced the percentage of women in the military, which they join voluntarily, but their numbers continued to increase.
The country plans reforms, also in the military field, to move closer to the European Union and NATO. At the same time, it has been involved in a war since Russian troops invaded the east in 2014 before launching the big invasion in 2022. Since 2018, a new legislative framework promotes equality, Grigorieva emphasizes. Now, on paper, women can pursue a military career and advance to any position, including that of combatant. “This is our great achievement and we are proud to have achieved it,” he emphasizes.
Prejudice and machismo continue to complicate the path of those who choose this career and progress: “The fact that she is beautiful and young does not mean that she is anyone’s lover,” laments Grigorieva, referring to a mentality anchored in the past and unaware of merits. These attitudes complicate the path to legislative changes aimed at decisively combating crimes such as rape, sexual abuse or harassment, because, if we look at the former Soviet republic, it is an issue that has barely been addressed, he adds.
“Those who were previously civilians now enter the army without knowing what the Istanbul Convention is,” explains the gender official, referring to the Council of Europe treaty on preventing and combating violence against women, an initiative to which kyiv has joined. “Well, I was just flirting because I like it,” is another expression that can be heard among soldiers, according to Grigorieva, who explains that every military training process includes chapters aimed at ending discrimination and harassment. Gone are the days when this meant a fine of only 360 hryvnias (about seven euros). Now, in the new military disciplinary code, such comments can lead to the withdrawal of a substantial part of the salary. Regardless, Grigorieva highlights the presence of gender advisors in all units – there are around 700 – and defends that harassment is not among the main problems.
She is more concerned that once her role in combat positions is accepted, “not all commanders view women as qualified for leadership.” This is why her “main objective” is for there to be “as many women as possible in leadership positions”, she emphasizes, because “we do not even have one at the head of a brigade” (5,000 to 7,000 soldiers) and “only one leads a battalion” (around half a thousand). But remember that this is basically the path they must follow in their military career after the new legislation in 2018. But not everything is managed by written rules that must be put into practice. “It is true that the loss of a woman is still experienced much more deeply than that of a man,” explains Grigorieva, referring to a case she knows, that of the death of a combat medic.
Among the motivations that push some to volunteer, cases stand out in which they end up wearing the uniform because they want the war not to affect their children. Or because they lost a family member and this becomes a trigger to join the defense of Ukraine.
However, one of the stories that shocked him the most was that of a couple, both contract soldiers, with two children, an eight-month-old baby and a three-year-old from a previous marriage. In 2022, they decided that she would go to the front as a combat medic. The law allows, when it comes to a couple, that one of the two does not move up the ranks. The woman, whom Grigorieva does not name, even declared, amid the doubts of her companion’s family: “I am a fighter”. After three years, the relationship exploded and the army intervened so that during the divorce she would not lose her parental rights and, in turn, called her ex-husband forced to enlist in the army. Today, she is still a soldier, but in the rear.
In combat positions, constraints and danger prevent us from making the distinctions that are made, for example, in training locations or garrisons outside the front line. Intimacy does not include gender in the trenches. After more than 11 years of war, social networks sometimes reflect this transformation that Ukraine is experiencing. The photo of a precarious latrine splashed with urine in front and published by a soldier serves to attract attention with mockery: “You also have to know how to aim here, comrades. »
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