Halyna Vynokur, an employee at a hardware store in kyiv, carried a gun for the first time. Iryna Sychova, a department store purchasing manager, disassembled and reassembled the jumble of rods and springs from a Kalashnikov rifle.
They were among two dozen women who traveled to a forest near Kiev on a recent weekend for a course in firearms and urban combat, training that included shooting rifles, looking for traps and the throwing of hand grenades. They were driven by a sense of duty, they said, knowing that they might one day find themselves on the front line.
“No one wants to fight in the trenches,” said Olha Bakhmatova, 46, a psychologist who took the training. “It’s not natural to want it.” But she thought it was “inevitable” that more women would end up fighting, and she wanted to be prepared.
“Now I understand: if not me, who?” she says.
After 20 months of large-scale war, fighting in Ukraine has become bogged down in violent battles of attrition along a zigzag front line in the southeast. A steady supply of weapons and personnel is crucial, and although Ukraine benefits from arms donated by the West, it relies only on its own population as a reserve to replenish its forces – and Russia’s is about three times more important.
With so much hype surrounding replenishment, efforts are underway to attract more Ukrainian women to the military. Volunteer groups offering all-female training, like the one near kyiv, support this effort.
About 43,000 women now serve in Ukraine’s military, according to the Defense Ministry, an increase of about 40% since 2021, the year before Russia’s full-scale invasion. The proportional increase is less than that of the male fighting force, which has more than tripled over the same period.
Ukrainian women are currently taking part in the fighting in southeastern Ukraine. On several occasions since the invasion, the military has abolished restrictions that prevented women from advancing to roles such as machine gunner, tank commander and sniper, and lifted rules barring women from driving trucks . It increased the age limit for female recruits, previously 40, to 60, the same as for men.
Earlier in the large-scale war, women had taken on combat roles in paramilitary groups or bending the rules. And they were wounded, captured and killed, although the army does not release casualty figures for either men or women.
The Ukrainian military’s efforts on behalf of women are a step toward equality, but they also reflect the heavy toll the war has taken.
The hundreds of thousands of men who wanted to volunteer at the start of the war, many of whom lined up from day one, have already joined; many died or injured. Ukraine must now mobilize and train many more soldiers to support its resistance to the Russian invasion, even as men increasingly avoid conscription.
The all-female training sessions aim to provide a learning environment in which women will not feel less educated than men and where their efforts will not be continually compared to the physical strength of men.
“Women are able to fight on an equal footing with men while remaining feminine,” said Darya Trebukh, founder of the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Valkiriya, which leads the training sessions. “The gender of a warrior makes no difference.”
Ms Vynokur, 26, a hardware store saleswoman, went to training with a friend after seeing an ad on Instagram. “What attracted me to it was that it was for women,” she said. “It’s more comfortable, especially for the first time” to handle a weapon. “As women, we are all on the same level,” she said.
About her military service, she said: “Everyone understands that the war will not end in a month. “I don’t want to, I never wanted to, but I understand that I should be willing to do it.”
The Ukrainian military has primarily focused on ways to improve conditions for women already in the military, such as providing gender-specific clothing and body armor, and not on mobilization. It does not recruit women, although it recently required that women with medical training be recruited. Women who want to serve must enlist.
At a recent session near Kiev, beginners learned how to adjust the sling of a Kalashnikov rifle: too loose and it bounces, too tight and it can’t quickly get into position to fire.
The instructor, an active duty paratrooper, demonstrated reloading a magazine, clearing a jammed cartridge and firing from a prone position.
Cases of friction have become more frequent. In July, police arrested officials at military recruiting offices for accepting bribes of $250 to $1,500 from men to avoid conscription, and President Volodymyr Zelensky fired all the leaders regional conscription offices for reasons of corruption.
In August, the military reduced deferments for chronic illnesses. Now, men with asymptomatic tuberculosis, hepatitis and HIV are eligible for the project. In June, the military strengthened exemptions for men who care for disabled relatives or study at graduate schools, where enrollment has exploded since the invasion.
To accommodate women, the Defense Ministry introduced a women’s specific uniform over the summer and this month the Ukrainian army distributed women’s underwear.
The first indication of possible conscription for women came into effect on October 1, with a law requiring women with medical training to register at recruiting offices. They are not called up, but must undergo medical examinations and receive conscription cards.
Women have been particularly attracted to piloting drones used for surveillance purposes or to drop explosives on the enemy.
“Women who can fly drones are people who could tomorrow, if necessary, get a drone to target artillery fire,” said Valeriy Borovyk, commander of a drone unit and founder of a dedicated group for training women pilots called Pilotesy.
Mr. Borovyk founded Pilotesy in kyiv during the first month of the full-scale invasion, while scrambling to find drone pilots. A fashion show organizer helped recruit, and some of the first students were models and actresses. About a third of those women have since joined the military, he said.
Women study combat drone piloting for a variety of reasons, he said. Some believe they may be called into combat and want to learn a useful skill. Others are already in the military and want to transition from support positions or medical jobs to combat roles.
“I can be called up to the army, so I decided that I must have certain skills for the front line,” said Alina Budnyova, 24, who graduated from medical university last year and is due now register for conscription. She said she was motivated to prepare because “I want to protect my country.”
Ms. Budnyova started with the basics: turning left and right, hovering, keeping the drone in line of sight of satellites for navigation. She flew carefully, low to the ground, buzzing above the dry, brown autumn grass and flowers of a training ground.
“Women often feel second class” in the military, said one of the drone trainers, Diana, who asked that only her first name be used for security reasons. “They are physically weaker and there are things they can’t do.” But they are on equal footing in piloting drones. “I joined the army to fight, not to shuffle papers,” she said.
The Valkiriya group trained around 200 women in firearms and other combat techniques. Women who complete the course and wish to join the army register at recruiting offices; about one in five students did so, Ms. Trebukh said.
In the forest, the all-female group trained in combat, some taking an introductory lesson, others practicing advanced skills. The group ties a few knots into the genre: Some of the targets were pink balloons, and a car was parked nearby as a private space to change into camouflage.
A few hours after the training began, a group of half a dozen women, including Ms. Sychova, the purchasing manager, practiced attacking a building. They walked up the stairs, through the hallways, around corners, covering each other, patting each other on the back and keeping their weapons trained on possible threats. On the upper floor, a man playing the role of an enemy waited.
When the main group reached him, a woman shouted, “Contact! The trainees intended to shoot.
“Girls, that’s all,” Ms. Sychova shouted from a stairwell. “We killed him.”
Audio produced by Jack D’Isidoro.
