The soft power of Ukrainian women will defeat Mordor

A Ukrainian woman joined the territorial defence in Kyiv. Photo: Andrii Horobchuk

A lot of volunteer work, like cooking and cleaning. Businesswomen come and wash toilets, sorry to mention this. But they are willing to do any work, they believe that they must do something to help the armed forces. If we talk about female military officers, not civil volunteers – the female warriors – they probably have a special psychological type. This is more of a masculine activity that requires physical training and aggression. Our society is rather emancipated so many girls and women have found themselves in the military. We have two female officers in the headquarters. This is rather common because a military education is required. I graduated from the military department last year and among us, the new generation, there were many girls who received officer ranks as psychologists and political scientists. This is why I think there will be many more female officers in the future. The culture is changing.

Are there more female privates than female officers?

IRYNA: Yes, especially among the medical staff. There are many female medics. This has always been the case. Office workers as well, women are in charge of doing documentation work. However, there are many girls in the combat units too.

In general, what is the percentage of females in the territorial defence?

IRNYA: It is difficult to say. I think it is just about under ten per cent in the headquarters. And about five per cent in the units. But it is rare in general, a woman at a checkpoint or on a reconnaissance mission is not a very common sight. For example, as I was working on mobilisation in the first days of the war, when I saw a girl signing a contract to join a combat unit, I came up to the commander and to her and explained that she was probably overestimating her ability. Many of them do not understand where they are going. This looks romantic to them. And this is why I tried to get them out of this and get them to work in the headquarters. I understood it was going to be hard for them to be freezing while guarding some object. This has to be left to men, they are able to endure more in this sense.

So, you believe that a woman’s role is organisation in the rear?

IRYNA: Yes, and they are a lot better at it than men. When the crisis started and the territorial defence headquarters needed to be set up and the work organised, all necessary processes established, women turned out to be more adaptive and effective than men. They understood and did things quicker.

You have said that you lack privacy. There are thousands of people under the same roof. How do you solve the issue of female hygiene? 

IRYNA: We have separate rooms in the headquarters. This is not a military barracks. This is why we allocated rooms where women sleep. Since I am in charge of the unit, I sleep together with the boys. For the first two days we slept on a concrete floor without sleeping mats. Then we got mats, then we got beds. NATO standards do not differentiate between men and women. If you are a fighter, you are a fighter with no gender. Since I have been in the military for seven years, I have experienced different situations and I do not have a threshold of shame, so in this respect I need no personal space for hygiene. I lack something different. Generally, a commander in the military can efficiently manage eight people. For a battalion commander those are company commanders, for a company commander they are platoon commanders. But when one is approached by thousands of people a day, it negatively affects one’s nervous system. So far, my major discomfort comes from the fact that thousands of people who need something can contact me. I just want to spend five minutes in silence.

What is the situation in terms of self-care? I see you and other women are well groomed and even manage to get a manicure. How do you do that?

IRYNA: A woman’s morale is not too high if she does not have a manicure, or her hair is not done (laughing). This is why we went to the battalion commander and organised this. Men, actually, do not feel comfortable without a haircut either. So, first of all we started giving men buzz cuts. We organised a massage salon for March 8th (International Women’s Day). We have found a manicure master. So, gradually we are making ourselves at home. We do not know how long we will have to live like this, so we cannot let ourselves go unkempt. It is important for a woman to remain a woman even sitting in an underground shelter. So, this is why we already have a barbershop and a massage salon. And the girls value this highly. Because this is support. I do not mind living in a parking lot but when my hair is not coloured, I am not fit for battle.

So, a fighter cannot go home, take a bath and take care of some urgent matters?

IRYNA: Each time a person goes somewhere, he or she has to file a report. I have done it twice. The first time I managed to take a bath and then the air raid siren sounded, information of a possible airborne troops landing came and I immediately went back to my unit which was left without a commander. The second time I went to say goodbye to my old friend who had also joined the territorial defence, he was killed at a checkpoint. So, this is 24/7 non-stop work, you do not have downtime.

Where are your children now?

IRYNA: My children are in Germany with my sister. I have three children and my sister took responsibility for their evacuation. The younger children had left early. I had to take the older one out of occupied Irpin into an area that was under fire as part of a military convoy. I was very nervous but now I am relaxed because they are safe.

Are you scared for yourself that at any moment they can be left without their mother?

IRYNA: We are located in a place the enemy knows very well. We have already been under attack. This is why for the first five days we used to say goodbye to our lives before going to sleep. Because there are no guarantees we are going to wake up in the morning. We slept next to our guns. Then we got sick of this and nobody reacts to the air raid sirens anymore. Everybody just keeps going about their business. The danger perception threshold is getting lower. I have given all my passwords from Google Photos to my sister to make sure pictures, documents, contacts of insurers and notaries are accessible to my children, so that I can serve without worries. I know my sister will take care of the kids if something happens to me. But living in an underground shelter or as an evacuee is not for me. This is my country.

Where is your husband?

IRYNA: He also serves in our battalion but in a combat unit. They are away all the time. We have combat companies at their combat posts, at checkpoints. My husband is part of a reconnaissance unit. 

What are the relations like between women and men in the military? Do you feel discriminated against?

IRYNA: Sure, there is discrimination. When I was a soldier and I was younger, I did not really feel discriminated against because a woman soldier with a gun is sort of a cute personage. However, when there is a woman in the headquarters in the officers’ meeting, it is like proving yourself to a new male collective. You have to prove every time that you are competent, that you are a professional. Here you also have to prove that you are not in the headquarters by accident, that you are an equal combat and intellectual unit with your own knowledge and skills. You have to prove that you are a combat officer and can carry out your missions. Because we still have officers with a Soviet upbringing in the headquarters, it is a discovery for them that a woman in the army has the right to say anything.

Has the attitude changed since the time you arrived at the headquarters?

IRYNA: It is changing every day. The attitude is formed by achievements and over several weeks I have done a lot of work and initiated the processes that are very important for the functioning of the headquarters. Everybody knows that if you need to find an excavator, you go to Ira, if you want to find an artillerist, you go to Ira, if you want reconnaissance to work, you go to Ira. And when all roads lead to me they begin to understand this this person is probably capable of something.

So, your managerial skills are recognised and they have come to accept it?

If initially it was very difficult to get permission from commanders, now I have carte blanche for many things. They increasingly trust me because they understand that this works. For example, we had gone hungry for two days because we had no food or water; and then all of a sudden there were hot breakfasts and dinners in sufficient quantities to feed not only us but also the neighbouring maternity hospital and neighbouring military units. Everybody understood that somebody was capable of something. Because generally running a military unit and being a corporate manager is very similar. If you have 20 years of managerial experience in the private sector you can do this all by combining it with the knowledge obtained in the military department.

Are there other women with managerial experience working with you?

IRYNA: Many. For example, we have a female volunteer Natasha, she owns a jewellery business. She has arranged the whole food supplies process. From A to Z. Starting with volunteer supplies and ending with cooking and serving the food. She did this all single-handed and it’s working like clockwork. We have a woman who is a director at one of the central TV channels who does unbelievable things. She brought a railroad car full of humanitarian aid from Poland, for example, unloaded it here at the train station supervised by a military convoy and then sent it to the occupied city of Sumy. My request to do this was turned down by the armed forces and the national police, but she managed to do it. And she is a small slender woman. Girls here perform heroic deeds every day and I do not even know how they manage it all.

Getting supplies for the territorial defence falls on female shoulders?

IRYNA: Basically, yes.

And charitable foundations pay for it?

IRYNA: Not only. Local businesses and local restaurants do so as well. The Ukrainian diaspora also got involved as well as volunteers who have ties abroad. Everybody helps. The armed forces only provide us with armaments.

NATALYA: Wonderful girls work for us. They manage to procure things the army fails to such as uniforms and equipment. The army does not give it to us but Natasha and Gayane manage to get it. There are girls working on medical supplies, which we also are not getting. We have a volunteer headquarters where everyone does his or her own job. Day and night. A man follows his heart to come and defend his home. However, he needs a lot of things besides his gun. He can come without socks, wearing his tennis shoes. Without spoons, without mugs. Without necessary clothes. He is not a fighter like this. And we provide him with all of this. Everything is new and of excellent quality.

I see a functioning kitchen, an organised distribution of hot food – it’s all clean and orderly. Do I understand correctly that all of this was set up by female volunteers under your leadership?

NATALYA: When we came here, the boys were sleeping on cardboard and using it as cover as well. The room was very cold, many of them got sick. Coming up to them, giving them water, medicines – all this was done by girls. We create a homelike atmosphere for the soldiers. You do not just put food onto the soldier’s plate, you show support as well. You touch his hand, so that he feels you care. You ask him, “Would you like some lemon?” We had two couples here who got married. And we did a wedding ceremony for them. Although it was different from a usual church ceremony, we used the Ukrainian flag. We also have a volunteer masseuse who takes care of our backs.   

Did you evacuate your family?

NATALYA: Yes, I have sent all of them away. I have two old grandmas; I have sent them to my brother. My daughter is about to give birth any day. I understood I was not going to take up arms. I am not going to help this way. However, I can support the soldiers. The room is not suitable for so many people. Infections may spread. And if an epidemic starts, are they going to be able to fight? So, we organised for disinfection of the rooms, of the bathrooms, introduced rules that everybody has to wash and disinfect their hands, clean up after themselves to make sure it is not dirty. Many elderly men have come. If he sleeps on a concrete floor, he will get sick and will not be able to get up. We got sleeping mats, blankets.

Do you have managerial experience?

NATALYA: Yes, I own a business, I have stores in different cities. And our task now is to get supplies so that a soldier can come to us and receive everything he needs, not to get disheartened. Because when we came here, we saw that they only got food and then went to sleep.

How did you manage to set up the kitchen that serves a thousand people?

NATALYA: Two boys with kettles and a microwave came and then all of this grew to the scale you are seeing now. Initially the kitchen was used as a bathroom. We washed and scrubbed it, got huge refrigerators in. Set all this up. We are trying to make sure there is homemade food, hot food and soup for sure. For someone to fight, he needs others to prepare the ground, to make sure he is fed, healthy, can get some sleep, make sure that he is warm. 

How is the women’s morale now?

NATALYA: If more and more new women join, I think we will be more resilient than the men who came to take up arms. We cannot go back now. If we give up, what are they going to do? But we will not give up!

Translated by Julia Kazdobina

Iryna is a territorial defence officer in Kyiv and Natalya is a civil volunteer who arranges food supplies for the military.

Andrii Horobchuk is a journalist based in Kyiv.

Kyiv, Ukraine at war, women role