Themes by tag: women

Originally from Donetsk, Tetiana Tipakova lived in Berdiansk, Zaporizhia region (currently Russian-occupied), for about 30 years. Before Russia’s all-out invasion, she worked in a travel agency.

Since the full-blown war’s early days, Tetiana assembled peaceful protests in support of Ukraine in Berdiansk. Eventually, she was abducted by the Russian military for leading the actions. They put a bag over her head and took her to a colony, where she was interrogated for two days and beaten. Tetiana was subjected to electric shocks through her fingers and Russian captors mocked her execution. She was also forced to record an apology video. The prisoner was released, but the next day she was captured again. This time, she was held for 4 days and again had to endure torture.

After that, Tatiana decided to flee the city. She traveled through more than 20 checkpoints to get to the city of Zaporizhia. There she later founded the Ridna Stezhka NGO to support her fellow countrymen who were also forced out of the occupied city. They help people with food and medicine insecurity and organize leisure activities. They also help the military from the Berdiansk community. “Our heart is forever yellow and blue” is a tagline linked with the organization. 

There is an opportunity for journalists to hold offline and online interviews with Tetiana. 

• occupation
• prisoners
• russian crimes
• women

As a civilian, Olha Rukavishnikova is a violinist. She started music education at the age of four and in the eighth grade, she took up conducting and performed in particular at the Mykolaiv Regional Philharmonic and the Kyiv Conservatory Great Hall. On February 24, 2022, at 8 a.m., Olha was standing ready at the local military registration and enlistment offices. She was issued a firearm by the evening of that day and used it for the first time against the enemy the next day. Now Olha is fighting in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, her main weapon is a hand-held RPG-7 anti-tank grenade launcher, but she also works with a sniper rifle, an automatic easel grenade launcher, a machine gun, and a mortar.

During one of her combat missions, Olha sustained a blast injury to her cervical vertebrae. This exposure to an explosion also resulted in eye loss. Despite this, she refused to be discharged from military service. Now she is performing active military duty at the front line area again.

The servicewoman is ready to talk to the media online by prior arrangement.

• culture
• military
• women

Women who have fallen into difficult life circumstances due to the war have almost completed driving courses in Kyiv. These are the first courses like this in Ukraine. They started in September last year. 15 women joined the pilot project. Among the participants are those who were forced to leave their homes due to russia’s full-scale invasion.

The women have already passed the theoretical part of the exam and are completing the practical part. After successful training, they will be able to obtain a category B license and have the opportunity to become mobile and independent. 

• casualties
• women
• Kyiv

Anna Chepynoha is a third-year student at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. In July 2023, 20-year-old Anna joined the separate UAV service in the Ukrainian Volunteer Army. Already in August, the military woman started going on combat missions in the Zaporizhia direction. Anna continues to study: combines her service with online lectures and university seminars. The woman says that sometimes she must get in touch with her university right while being at the positions, in the break between performing combat tasks. Anna does not plan to take an academic leave from the university. Currently, she serves as a navigator and plans to become a drone operator.

For reference: Anna Chepynoha is at the front lines. She is ready to communicate with journalists, both online and offline, by prior arrangement.

• military
• women

Liudmyla Chepizhko, owner of a beauty salon in Solomianskyi district of Kyiv. The woman opened the establishment during the all-out Russian invasion.

On the morning of January 2, 2024, Russians attacked Kyiv with missiles. The explosion shattered windows and damaged walls in Liudmyla’s salon. Luckily, there were no people at the moment when the strike hit, so there were no those injured. The very next day, Liudmyla boarded up the broken windows with plywood and reopened the salon for business.

• reconstruction
• russian crimes
• women
• Kyiv

Olena Zinova is an entrepreneur from Kherson. For more than 20 years, the woman has run her own shop and sold embroidered Ukrainian shirts, towels, jewelry and souvenirs with Petrykivka painting. When the enemy occupied Olena’s hometown in 2022, she had to carefully hide all things with Ukrainian symbols and close the store, because the russians were looking for and destroying everything that was even remotely connected to Ukraine. Olena had lived under the occupation for three months, when she finally decided to leave and take a collection of embroidered shirts and the Ukrainian flag with her. Together with her family, the woman managed to pass through 33 russian roadblocks, even though each one could be the last, Olena says.

The entrepreneur’s family settled in Kryvyi Rih, Dnipropetrovsk region, where she immediately began to rebuild her business. Olena made another shop from scratch, had renovations done there and bought equipment to replace what she had had to leave in Kherson. Nowadays, clothes from Olena’s shop aren’t worn only in Kryvyi Rih, as she also receives orders from abroad. The woman dreams that soon she will be able to return to her hometown and once again please customers with Ukrainian embroidered shirts.

For reference: on November 11, 2022, the Defense Forces of Ukraine liberated Kherson from the occupiers. Since then russia has been constantly shelling the city and killing Kherson civilians. 

• culture
• occupation
• reconstruction
• women
• Dnipro

On January 13-14, Kyiv will host a new masterclass session as part of the project “Thousands of Love Stories. Paintings of Wives of Real Heroes.” At the event, women who lost their husbands during the war will paint pictures.

The charity project was started by the artist Oleg Yurov in January of last year. Since then, over 200 women took part in art workshops, during which they created paintings in memory of the men who had died defending Ukraine. In particular, women made pictures of their dreams, objects or sensations associated with their deceased loved ones. An exhibition of paintings by those who took part in the charity project has recently been held in Kyiv.

• culture
• dead
• military
• women
• Kyiv

Yuliana is a resident of Bakhmut, Donetsk region. On the day when she decided to leave the city with her family, the enemy began to attack her residential area.

The woman managed to cover her head with her hands during a powerful explosion. Having regained consciousness, she realized that she was under rubble. Yuliana remembers that when she was getting helped with getting out, she noticed that the fingers on her hand had been ripped apart. It felt as if the limb had been completely torn off.

The wound did not heal well, part of the muscles had to be cut out. The doctors did not know what to do with the hand next. Due to the improper growth of bones and muscles, no one wanted to undertake treatment. However, Yuliana later found out about the national program “Save the Limb,” the specialists of which are currently fighting to save her hand.

For reference: The “Save the Limb” national program was launched last year upon the initiative of the International Charitable Foundation “Health of the Ukrainian People.” Its mission is to prevent Ukrainians from becoming disabled via 15,000 surgeries to save the limbs of both the military and the civilians.

Battles for Bakhmut began in August 2022, although the russians had been shelling the city since the spring. By May 2023, russian troops occupied most of Bakhmut. Due to constant russian shelling, the city was razed to the ground. Yuliana’s apartment was also destroyed.

• casualties
• doctors
• women

Olha Yehorova joined the Defense Forces in the summer of 2022. The woman says that she could not understand how it was possible to return to civilian life with a large part of Ukraine under occupation. So Olha turned to one of the centers of the Special Operations Forces and became a clerk. The woman wanted to prepare herself for further transition to a combat group, so she attended various specialized classes.

In the end, the military woman and her comrades managed to get into the sniper platoon, where the commander did not care about the soldiers’ gender and required everyone to work hard and learn to wield weapons skillfully. Currently, Olha is responsible for communications in her platoon. It is her job to ensure communication between the command and the soldiers.

For reference: Olha Yehorova is on the front line. The military servicewoman is ready to communicate with journalists, both online and offline, by prior arrangement.

• military
• women

Olha Pometun, a resident of Kamianka, Dnipropetrovsk oblast, is 37 years old. She was born with brittle bone disease. This is a congenital disease, when the bones are very fragile and break easily. In addition, in childhood, the woman suffered an injury that stopped her growth. Despite all the difficulties, Olha did not lose her passion for living. She took driving courses, bought a car and converted it to her own needs. In addition, she learned to swim and even wrote a motivational book.

With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Olha took up volunteering. In her native Kamianka, the woman founded the United by Good Charitable Foundation. Currently, Olha’s team consists of seven people, all of whom are IDPs. They help the military, as well as civilians who need support. Since it was founded, the team has managed to help more than 10,000 Ukrainian families.

• volunteers
• women
• Dnipro