Themes by tag: women

With the beginning of the full-scale war, Mykola Volyka, a resident of Lebedyn village in Cherkasy oblast, was approached by a fellow soldier and asked to make 300 staples for his unit. Mykola, who had never dealt with metal before, set up a forge right in his yard. He studied blacksmithing together with his friends, whom he also invited to join in. Later, he involved his fellow villagers to the forge to produce not only staples, but also potbelly stoves, axes, pickaxes, anti-tank hedgehogs and spades.

Tetiana Chepur, now a craftswoman in the forge, says that women actively took up the new activity. And now they are the main workers as a total of five female blacksmiths volunteer at the forge. They often work in the evenings after finishing their day jobs.

Since the forge was created, volunteers managed to make 156,000 staples, 13,000 pickaxes and 10,000 spades.

• volunteers
• women
• Cherkasy

Katrin Zabotkina began learning sign language at the age of 16. As a teenager, Katrin was struck by how a boy with hearing impairments adapted a participant’s song during one of the talent contests. This prompted Katrin to study sign language. She looked for various video lessons, constantly learned new gestures and revised them thousands of times in front of the mirror to improve her skills.

Katrin learned to adapt songs for people with hearing impairment. And in the end, she became the first to provide sign language interpretation for the Ukrainian National Selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. Katrin spent two days on adapting each of the songs, because she wanted to preserve the meaning of the song, emphasize main musical instruments, work out facial expressions, rhythm, mood and emotions of the piece. The sign language singer plans to continue adapting songs for people with hearing impairment.

• women
• Kyiv

Prior to the full-blown enemy invasion, Violetta Oliinyk used to make custom jewelry. The girl’s life changed on February 24, 2022, when her father and brother volunteered for mobilization to the Defense Forces. Violetta recalled her experience as a volunteer in 2014, when Russia first attacked Ukraine and her brother stood up to defend the country. So she started setting up fundraising, buying everything the service members needed, including drones, thermal imagers, tile carriers, sights, and cars.

Later, she decided to try to build a drone herself, as purchasing them does not come cheap. For that, Violetta took two free online courses that taught her how to assemble FPV drones, passed a theory exam, ordered the first parts, and equipped a small workshop in Chernivtsi. Nine of Violetta’s FPV drones are already eliminating the occupiers at the front. She recently assembled four more, which she sent to her brother, and soon six more will be ready for her father. The craftswoman says she get inspired by the military’s feedback and videos of her “birds” in use.

• volunteers
• women
• Chernivtsi

Iryna Kulbach has been the chair of the University Hospital Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in Dnipro for 23 years. At the beginning of the all-out invasion, the doctors there had to deliver babies in a shelter.

On December 29, 2023, a Russian missile struck the maternity ward. A fire broke out there, and the blast wave smashed about 900 windows in the hospital. That day, Iryna and other doctors were on duty. The team responded quickly to the situation: women in labor with newborns, pregnant women, and the patients’ families were moved to shelters in advance. As a result of the attack, the maternity hospital building caught fire producing smoke, so Iryna and other specialists evacuated all the people to save their lives.

Recently, the President of Ukraine awarded Iryna Kulbach with the Honored Doctor of Ukraine award. In addition, she received the medal “For Merit to the City”.

For reference: The damage caused by the enemy shelling is still being assessed. 30 employees of the maternity ward were transferred to other departments of the hospital, and 20 are currently unemployed.

For reference: February 24, 2024, Ukraine marks 2 years since Russia commenced its unprovoked criminal full-scale invasion. This attack was the culmination of the initial war of aggression that Russia has been waging against Ukraine for 10 years. This armed conflict was ignited on February 20, 2014. Back then, Russians invaded the territory of Ukrainian Crimea giving no obvious sign of its covert military operation in the now-occupied peninsula. After that, Russia started a war in Ukraine’s east.

• children
• doctors
• russian crimes
• women
• Dnipro

On February 6, a pilot project to train women who want to attain an electrician career to be started in Kyiv. The course attendees will learn the basics of electrical installation (laying electrical wiring, installing and repairing sockets, switches); learn principles and practices of electrical equipment maintenance, etc.

The online and offline classes for practical electrical training programs are available to gain work experience using the appropriate equipment. The women in difficult life circumstances (IDPs, women who have lost their jobs, women whose husbands are mobilized, single mothers) were selected for the apprenticeship program. In total, there are 18 apprentices in the project.

As a reminder, Ukraine’s first driving courses for women facing difficulties due to the war was launched in Kyiv in September 2023. 

• women
• Kyiv

Olha had been working as a military psychologist from 2014 to 2018 when she resigned from service and together with her team started the Veteran Hub (a space that provides support to war veterans and their loved ones).

At the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Olha joined the ranks of the patrol police (just when the enemy was breaking through to the capital). Later, together with the police, she went to the territories of the Kyiv region liberated by the Ukrainian military, and helped local residents. And already in the summer of 2022, she joined the ranks of the Armed Forces, where she continues to work as a military psychologist. Olha was in Bakhmut and in the Zaporizhia sector. For now, she is in the capital.

Olha provides a full cycle of psychological support: selection, training, support during combat missions, crisis assistance, etc.

For reference: February 24, 2024 marks 2 years since the beginning of russia’s illegal full-scale invasion. The attack marked the culmination of the war of aggression, which the russian federation had been waging against Ukraine for 10 years at that point. This war began on February 20, 2014 when the russians invaded the territory of the Ukrainian Crimea without identification marks and occupied the peninsula. After that, russia started a war in the East of Ukraine. 

• military
• psychological support
• women
• Kyiv

Before the full-scale invasion, Anastasiia Ovcharenko worked with her husband in the IT industry in Kharkiv. The couple were raising a daughter.

When the big war started the family found themselves in their hometown. On the night of February 24, Anastasiia heard the explosions of russian rockets. The woman has been volunteering since March. Together with her husband, Anastasiia has set up fundraisers for the army and taken care of military vehicles.

On January 23, 2024, an enemy missile hit Anastasiia’s apartment. That morning, the couple had to go to Kyiv to take a military car to a workshop. The first explosions happened at 4 AM, so they asked their daughter to also go out to the car with them. Anastasiia and her family were around the corner from their house when a russian missile hit the building. Even after they lost their home, the Ovcharenkos did not abandon the military vehicle, but brought it to Kyiv as planned. And in a few days, they delivered the vehicle to the military in the East.

Anastasiia says that even despite the loss of a roof over their heads, the family will continue to volunteer and work for the Armed Forces, because only the Defense Forces will be able to stop the occupiers.

For reference: February 24, 2024 marks 2 years since the beginning of russia’s illegal full-scale invasion. The attack marked the culmination of the war of aggression, which the russian federation had been waging against Ukraine for 10 years at that point. This war began on February 20, 2014 when the russians invaded the territory of the Ukrainian Crimea without identification marks and occupied the peninsula. After that, russia started a war in the East of Ukraine.

• casualties
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• women
• Kharkiv

Daria-Olha, a resident of Mariupol, was 15 when she tried boxing for the first time. The girl showed a lot of promise, as 3 months after she started training, the athlete went to the all-Ukrainian competitions. In 2022, 18-year-old Daria-Olha was supposed to go to the European Championship, but russia launched the full-scale invasion and the enemy troops surrounded Mariupol. At first, the athlete’s family was going to wait out the russian shelling in an apartment together with their friends. Later they had to relocate to the basement. At this time, there was no network coverage, gas and electricity in the city. Even in such conditions, Daria continued training to keep in shape.

The family managed to leave besieged Mariupol in a truck with strangers, the trip to Zaporizhia took them over a day, because they had to go through russian checkpoints. After getting to Ukraine-controlled territory, Daria-Olha found out that her coach had left for Ivano-Frankivsk, so she went to him. There, the girl enrolled at Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University’s Faculty of Physical Education and Sports, because she dreams of becoming a trainer. In May 2022, Daria-Olha won bronze at the International Boxing Tournament in Sweden in the category of under 52 kilograms. Currently, the Ukrainian boxer is training to win the gold at the Olympics.

• women
• Ivano-Frankivsk

In 2015, Ksenia Kleinos opened a creative space in Berdiansk (the city is occupied now), Zaporizhia region — the anti-cafe “CHAS YE” (there is time). When russia’s full-scale invasion started, the woman was at home: at 4 AM she heard explosions. She decided to go to a village near Berdiansk, because she thought it was safer there. She lived in the village for 40 days and saw helicopters circling over the house. The woman decided to leave: she had to go through 16 russian checkpoints to get to Zaporizhia.

In April 2022, Ksenia moved to Lviv. She decided to open a coffee shop (in the summer she applied for a grant from the state). At the beginning of autumn, she launched the public project “We Are Berdiansk” to support other refugees from Berdiansk. Meanwhile, the answer came: Ksenia received the grant of UAH 240,000. Nowadays, Ksenia gathers people from Berdiansk in her cafe, where she holds, in particular, art master classes, and they also play board games there. The community even has its own reading club.

In addition, two landsmen of Ksenia work in her coffee shop, which the woman named in honor of an island in Berdiansk creek “Dzendzik.”

• casualties
• occupation
• women
• Lviv

Oksana Vinnik, 56, an agronomist by profession, was born in the Lviv region but moved to Volyn almost 40 years ago. She has 4 adult children and 8 grandchildren. With the full-blown war outbreak, Oksana turned to volunteering: cooking borscht and dumplings for the military in her kitchen and sending the food to the front line.

Later, she saw an advertisement by Volyn Territorial Defense Brigade looking for people to fill various positions, including a cook. It hit Oksana that this offer was right for her. Nobody but Oksana’s husband knew about her decision to mobilize, but she told her children and grandchildren after she received her military ID.

Oksana is currently stationed in the Lyman area, where she and a team of cooks prepare home-cooked meals for soldiers, including those who have been wounded at the front.

• food
• military
• women