Ukraines first lady: Women bearing the brunt of the war

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At a time when men between 18 and 60 were banned from leaving the country, these women delivered President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for military hardware and humanitarian assistance. UNFPA urgently needs flexible financing to scale up its operations in Ukraine and neighbouring countries. Most urgently UNFPA needs financing to provide essential medical supplies and deploy further trained personnel to deliver life-saving services.

She and her team have spent the past eight years documenting some 28,000 Russian war crimes in Ukraine, from murder and torture to rape. She describes Russian treatment of Ukrainians as showing ‘genocidal intent’. ‘A Ukrainian woman can do anything.’ These words from Maryna Popatenko, Ukraine’s deputy Minister of Youth and Sports, capture the critical role women have had to play as their country has come under attack from Russia. Mother and daughter were in a filtration camp for Ukrainian prisoners of war captured in the southern city of Mariupol, and Obidina was about to be whisked away to a Russian detention centre.

  • A recent poll suggests that more than 90 per cent of Ukrainians are willing to put up with the cold, dark terror of Russian assaults for two or three years if, in the end, they are guaranteed EU membership.
  • But the reality was that when the Donbas war broke out the Ukrainian Army — which was haunted by corruption, a lack of basic supplies, and many other problems — was often openly hostile to women, she said.
  • “It’s a catastrophe,” says Andriy Chicheta, the owner of VVI-Agro, a large farming business in the Mykolaiv region.
  • A politically weak Ukraine, with high levels of corruption, will be prey to future attacks and the West may hesitate to continue to support its independence.

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 check this site out on https://www.thegirlcanwrite.net/ 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.

Women and girls lead humanitarian response to war in Ukraine

The organization left Ukraine because the leadership feared “for their lives and freedom”. Anna Malihon’s poem “Don’t Go Out for Water,” translated by Olena Jennings, speaks from the perspective of someone trapped in their shelter. The speaker, trapped in the shelter, is decreasing in size and strength. NELLE is an annual compilation that celebrates and publishes the best, most innovative writing by women, from fiction and poetry to creative nonfiction. Submissions to NELLE come from all over the United States and even internationally.

Kyiv, Ukraine – In May, 26-year-old Ukrainian military nurse Viktoria Obidina was forced to part with her four-year-old daughter. Former prisoners of war, swapped in a recent deal, say they were subjected to starvation and other forms of abuse. Today, some of the Ukrainians in Israel are holding out hope that the new incoming government will do more to help them. The resources made available for supporting women who have been trafficked upon arrival in Israel are scarce. “In the past several months, this has become a vulnerability issue,” she adds, explaining that women are often at risk particularly because they are so dependent on others for survival. The Times of Israel visited twice in December and was prevented from seeing the rooms on both occasions.

Women in the labor force

She said the war has separated many families in Ukraine as people have fled the fighting. But the school costs more than $3,000 a month to operate, Borovyk says, and because it is not supported by the government and does not have any big donors, they could use more money for instructors, drones and other equipment. The budget is currently coming out of Borovyk’s own pocket and supplemented by donations from students, and their friends and families. Mykyta Kosov, right, an instructor in the drone school, shows Tatiana Nikolaienko, left, and Yevhenia Podvoiska, center, how to plan a course for their drone to gather reconnaissance and evade detection in Kyivon Oct. 27. So she asked her brother Andrii and his girlfriend Kseniia Drahanyuk to send her the items she needed — and after the two realized just how much gear Kolesnyk was lacking, they created the Zemlyachki nonprofit to help other female soldiers. They’ve now helped over 3,000 women, sending them over $1 million worth of care packages that include things like lighter body armor, tampons, smaller shoes, and fitted uniforms, Kolesnyk said. Sultan—she chose the name because she loves Turkish soap operas—is one of three markswomen who have been selected by her country’s special forces for advanced sniper training in the forests of western Ukraine.

In the Russia-Ukraine war, drones are one of the most powerful weapons

For example, in 2022 Ukraine adopted the national strategy on equality of women and men, covering the period up to 2030. Social attitudes towards women soldiers have also improved a great deal over the past few years. For example, the percentage of Ukrainians who agreed that women in the military should be granted equal opportunities with men increased dramatically from 53% in 2018 to 80% in 2022. Not only have many of these formal obstacles now been removed, but gender advisers and audits have been introduced to encourage a military culture that is more welcoming for women.

Harness the unfulfilled potential of half the population, and any nation will gain an edge. During the presidential election of 2010, then candidate Viktor Yanukovych refused to debate his female opponent prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and justified it by saying that “a woman’s place is in the kitchen”. Verkhovna Rada Chairman Volodymyr Lytvyn have also made comments that could be seen as insolent towards woman. Around 45 percent of Ukraine’s population suffer violence – physical, sexual, or mental – and most of them are women.