On the front line just outside Bakhmut, Ukraine, a 32-year-old commander of a Ukrainian artillery platoon rocked to and fro in the passenger seat of a beat-up Lada, as another soldier navigated the car through a thick forest, sometimes mowing down young trees. When they reached their destination, a small village less than two miles from Russian lines, all that was left were destroyed houses, their shattered roofs visible in the moonlight.
The commander, a female soldier who uses the call sign Witch, is a former lawyer who, along with two of her brothers and her mother, joined the military the day after Russia invaded in February 2022. Her first experience in combat was in the outskirts of Kyiv that year, and much of what she has learned about weapons systems since has been self-taught and on the fly.
Since early 2023, Witch has been with her platoon in the 241st Brigade in the area around Bakhmut, supervising all of the artillery systems. She is resolute about staying in the military even if the war ends. “People who want to join the armed forces must understand that it’s a way of life,” she said.
As Ukraine struggles against fierce Russian assaults and its losses mount, there has been a surge of women who have enlisted, and they are increasingly volunteering for combat roles. The Ukrainian military has also made a concerted effort to recruit more women to fill its ranks.
About 65,000 women are currently serving in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, about a 30 percent increase since the war began. Roughly 45,000 serve as military personnel, and the rest hold civilian positions, according to the Defense Ministry of defense. Just over 4,000 are in combat positions.
Unlike for Ukrainian men, there is no mandatory draft for women; however, women who have medical or pharmaceutical degrees must register for the service.
These women fill a growing number of positions in the military: combat medics in assault units; senior gunners; snipers; commanders of tank units and artillery batteries; and at least one co-pilot on a medevac team who dreams of becoming Ukraine’s first female helicopter combat pilot. Dozens have been wounded in battle, and some have been killed or captured.
Along the front line, they operate under the same blanket of fear and hardship as male soldiers. In the dank, fortified shelter where Witch and one of her mortar teams spent most of their days, they waited in near darkness in the basement. Turning on lights would mean the crew could not quickly adjust their eyes to the dark if they had to go out and fire.
Farther north, a commander with the call sign Tesla, a former Ukrainian folk singer, sat hunched on a stool in the bare house serving as the field headquarters for the 32nd Mechanized Brigade. Russian forces in the Kupiansk region were sending barrages of artillery raining down on Ukrainian lines.
Tesla was simultaneously sending texts and voice notes to the soldiers in her unit while speaking to the second in command about the…
2024-03-10 00:01:32
Article from www.nytimes.com
