Fight medic Olena Ivanenko, 44, whose army name signal is “Ryzh,” takes a break from the entrance line within the northeastern metropolis of Sumy, Ukraine, earlier this yr.
Anton Shtuka for NPR
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Anton Shtuka for NPR
KYIV and KHARKIV, Ukraine — Maryna Mytsiuk spends her free time at a taking pictures vary exterior Kyiv, hyper-focused on hitting her targets. She’s received to apply. She’s ready for a name that, any day, will ship her to warfare.
“After all, I might wish to be in a fight place,” stated Mytsiuk, a 27-year-old folklore scholar who speaks Japanese and works at a nonprofit. “With my construct and peak, I am not a pure match for that … so I am coaching very laborious.”
She is amongst a rising variety of Ukrainian girls becoming a member of the army as Russia’s full-scale warfare on the nation nears its fourth yr, and troops stay briefly provide. This comes because the combating seems no nearer than it was when President Trump took workplace in January vowing to shortly dealer peace.
Mytsiuk stated the Ukrainian army has turn into far more receptive to girls for the reason that early days of the full-scale invasion, when Ukrainian males have been lining up at recruitment facilities to turn into troopers.
She needed to enroll, too, however was instructed she could be greatest off within the kitchen, she stated, “the place I may make dumplings.”
Mytsiuk, nevertheless, plowed forward. She enrolled at a army college for a second diploma, graduating this summer season. She seemed into a number of brigades and utilized to these with particular forces models. She had tough conversations along with her mom and her boyfriend, a soldier. Each strongly oppose her choice.
Maryna Mytsiuk, a 27-year-old Ukrainian folklore scholar, meets NPR at a restaurant in Kyiv, Ukraine. She has been prepping for the day she hopes she’ll get referred to as up for fight.
Joanna Kakissis/NPR
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Joanna Kakissis/NPR
“I see girls my age getting married, having youngsters,” she stated. “I can not assist having ideas, like am I doing the proper factor? However there is no turning again now.”
Eventually, she stated, she believes everybody in Ukraine who is ready to should struggle, particularly with no ceasefire deal on the horizon.
Troopers by alternative
Males between the ages of 25 and 60 may be drafted in Ukraine, however girls are exempt.
“We’re volunteers selecting to struggle,” Mytsiuk says.
Ukraine’s army says greater than 70,000 girls have been serving within the nation’s armed forces as of January. Oksana Hryhorieva, the army’s gender adviser, says although that is solely about 8% of the nation’s whole armed forces, the variety of girls has risen 40% since 2021.
“Till parliament handed a 2018 regulation,” she stated, “the army was patriarchal, and girls weren’t legally allowed to serve in fight positions or examine all disciplines at army universities.”
Ladies who joined battalions when Russia invaded elements of jap and southern Ukraine in 2014 did struggle on the entrance line however have been categorized as noncombatants.
“For instance,” Hryhorieva stated, “we had biathletes who have been nice snipers, however in line with their paperwork, they have been cooks. It was completely unfair.”
Now, she says, girls make up about 20% of army cadets and 1000’s are formally serving in fight positions. They embody fighter pilots, artillery commanders, drone operators and engineers. NPR met a number of girls serving in numerous army models this yr.
Yevhenia, 19, a reconnaissance drone pilot of the Khartiia thirteenth Nationwide Guard Brigade, works in a drone workshop in northeastern Ukraine earlier this yr.
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Some brigades, together with Khartiia and Azov, that are each a part of Ukraine’s Nationwide Guard, function girls of their promoting campaigns. In a single well-liked Azov recruitment video launched this summer season, two dads in a automotive store speak about their youngsters. One says his son is looking for a job at a crucial enterprise to exempt him from army service. The opposite says he has a daughter — and she or he’s a soldier.
The Khartiia thirteenth Nationwide Guard Brigade, founded by a Ukrainian billionaire in early 2022 as a volunteer battalion, is predicated within the northeastern area of Kharkiv. It is well-resourced and an innovator in robotic warfare.
This spring, the brigade launched a female-centered recruitment marketing campaign featuring a soldier within the floor robotic methods division named Jess. She is proven on a area, a white ribbon tying again her purple hair, testing land drones which are used to ship water, meals, gasoline and ammunition to troopers in front-line positions.
“I’m the one lady on this unit,” she says. “I’m 21 years outdated.”
The drone operators
At a Khartiia camp in northeastern Ukraine earlier this yr, two drone pilots — Yevheniia and Dasha — examined newly assembled first-person view (FPV) drones at a small hut with a 3D printer. The scent of shorn wooden, metallic and on the spot espresso wafts by means of the air.
NPR is utilizing solely the drone pilots’ first names and name indicators on the request of the Ukrainian army, which cited safety considerations.
Yevhenia “Furia” (left), 19, a reconnaissance drone pilot, and Dasha “Galactica,” 23, a first-person view drone pilot — each members of Ukraine’s Khartiia thirteenth Nationwide Guard Brigade — sit in a drone workshop on Feb. 1.
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Yevhenia, 19, resembles Arya Stark from Sport of Thrones. She makes use of the army name signal “Furia,” after the traditional Greco-Roman goddesses who punished evildoers for his or her sins. She stated male troopers typically ask her: What are you doing right here?
“And I say, I’ve to be right here, and that is that,” she stated.
“And why drones?” she added. “I believe as a result of I like to play laptop video games.”
She and Dasha have been amongst three girls in an FPV drone unit of 15.
Dasha, 23, is tall and stern. She makes use of the decision signal “Galactica.” She was briefly married and, earlier than the warfare, was planning to turn into a police officer. Dasha stated her mom wept when she left for fundamental coaching.
“My mom needed me to remain at dwelling, be a spouse, have youngsters,” Dasha stated. “And I selected what she calls a person’s occupation, residing with a relentless menace on my life.”
One other drone operator within the unit is in a muddy area a brief drive from camp. Daria is a former software program engineer in her early 30s. She is testing a brand new aerial drone because the solar units.
“Loads of my family members do not even know I am right here,” she stated. “They are saying, ‘She must go to Europe and be in some secure place.'”
Daria, a reconnaissance drone pilot of Ukraine’s Khartiia thirteenth Nationwide Guard Brigade, conducts a coaching flight in northeastern Ukraine earlier this yr.
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Daria volunteered as a humanitarian employee within the early days of the full-scale invasion, working 20 hours a day shuttling meals and different provides to front-line areas. She by no means felt like she was doing sufficient.
“I am Ukrainian, I am part of this nation, and I want to assist,” she stated.
She discovered how you can assemble and fly first-person-view drones, that are outfitted with video cameras and steerage methods managed remotely. Some brigades instructed her there weren’t many roles for “women” however Khartiia welcomed her drone expertise.
“Right here,” she stated, “they knew what to do with me.”
She stated she has misplaced contact with many associates since becoming a member of the army. Male associates have fled the nation to keep away from the draft. She stated she has struggled to not choose them.
“It is their alternative,” she stated, frowning. “They will do what they wish to do. I can not say, ‘All people must be like me.’ Although I would like [to], actually.”
The medic
Earlier this yr within the metropolis of Sumy, additionally in northeastern Ukraine, a fight medic who had simply left the entrance line walked right into a magnificence salon.
Olena Ivanenko, who goes by the decision signal “Ryzh,” was exhausted. She slumped in a luxurious chair, then closed her eyes as a beautician formed her eyebrows, then polished her nails.
Fight medic Olena Ivanenko at a magnificence salon throughout a time off from the entrance line earlier this yr.
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“I do know that in three days my nails can be dirty once more,” she stated. “However clear nails for in the future provides me such reduction and pleasure. For me, it is as routine as breakfast.”
Ryzh is 44 and ran eating places earlier than becoming a member of the army in 2023. She was with the forty seventh Mechanized Brigade earlier than becoming a member of 412 Nemesis, a brigade in Ukraine’s unmanned methods, this yr.
“I made a decision after three months of service that I might keep within the military without end,” she stated. “I cannot return to civilian life. I really feel very snug right here. I really feel like I’m 100,000, million p.c in my place.”
Her service has additionally introduced appreciable heartbreak. She calls them “the darkish dates.” In a single battle in 2023, many in her unit died, together with considered one of her closest associates.
“He was the primary to get blown up,” she stated, “and I pulled him out of the dugout. That is in all probability the toughest factor for me in the entire warfare to date.”
Ryzh herself was wounded within the leg after a Russian tank fired at her. (She has since recovered.)
She stated she speaks loads to civilians about what troopers face on the entrance line. She has seen the divide between troopers and civilians rising.
“Troopers say we’re working for victory, and civilians say we would like peace,” she stated. “However peace and victory are various things.”
The army intelligence analyst
At a Kyiv exhibition corridor this spring, Ukraine’s army intelligence unveiled state-of-the-art sea drones — and three members of the elite unit that function them.
A Ukrainian cover of the music “Sonne” by the German gothic metallic band Rammstein blared because the troopers strode onto the stage. They appeared in disguise, in balaclavas and sun shades. Once they spoke by means of microphones, their voices have been distorted for safety causes. One was Xena, just like the warrior-princess of the Nineties TV collection.
A model of those sea drones, outfitted with rockets and machine weapons, downed a Russian fighter jet within the Black Sea earlier this yr.
Grenades ready for drone drops by the Khartiia brigade, within the Kharkiv area of Ukraine, on Feb. 1.
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“Our problem,” Xena stated, “is to lure the Russians out of their bases after which hunt them. We intend to maintain adapting these sea drones till we are able to goal and hit Russian fighter jets, helicopters and ships beneath any situations.”
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