Themes by tag: women

Anastasia Leonova was born in russia; she moved to Ukraine in 2015. Later, she took a tactical medicine trainer course and trained Ukrainian soldiers. Then, she returned to civilian life, worked as a sommelier, and managed a sommelier school. However, russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24 changed everything when her friends invited her to present a tactical medicine course and invited her to join their battalion afterward. Since March, she has been the unit’s tactical medicine trainer and senior paramedic. For instance, she rescued the wounded on positions during the fighting north of Kyiv.

• doctors
• women

62-years-old Iryna was seriously wounded due to the russian artillery attack on her neighborhood in Sievierodonetsk. Only 5 buildings remain standing on the street where Iryna and her grandson used to live. Her thigh had to be amputated due to the heavy injuries. Currently, she is in one of the hospitals in Lviv Oblast. The Hands for a Mom project raised money to buy a prosthetic leg for Iryna. Within the framework of this initiative, prominent artists sold their works at auctions abroad and in Lviv. They raised over 30,000 euros to provide prosthetics for women gravely injured during the war. Soon, project organizers will buy prosthetics for two more injured women.

• casualties
• doctors
• russian crimes
• volunteers
• women
• Lviv

25-year-old Valeria, callsign “Osa” (Wasp), signed a contract with Ukraine’s Armed Forces eighteen months ago voluntarily; a week before the invasion, she signed up for a course for Javelin and NLAW operators. However, she prefers using the Ukraine-made Korsar anti-tank missile system. She managed to destroy several russian tanks and armored vehicles on the first day of the full-scale invasion.

• military
• women

In Odesa, volunteers launch a project to provide women on the front line with uniforms and ammunition aiming to support female defenders of Ukraine with everything they need for combat missions. For instance, the volunteers found superlight body armor plates weighing 2.7 kg (versus regular plates of 4.1 kg) at the same protection level. The foundation emphasizes that they can supply not only lightweight armor plates but also appropriately sized helmets, footwear and uniform, hats and gloves, specific medicines, backpacks, first aid kits, underwear, and hygiene items.

• military
• volunteers
• women
• Odesa

Iryna Nykorak, a Kyiv City Council member, launches the military uniform production for women. She called her project Arm Women Now. The project’s goal is to supply military uniforms to every woman in the Ukrainian Army.  According to the Councilor, the first uniform batch is being produced now. The next week it will be delivered to the Armed Forces of Ukraine to enable women fighters to test the uniform in combat.  According to Nykorak, over 50,000 women serve in Ukraine’s Armed Forces, including 3,500 as field officers.

• military
• women
• Kyiv

Temporary housing for pregnant women, who had to flee the war, is under construction in Lviv. Two houses with a total area of 1,300 m2 are to be built. Each will have bedrooms, laundry rooms, showers, toilets, lounges, children’s areas, kitchens and dining rooms. Houses made of wooden structures are being assembled on site based on the US experience.

Local authorities are planning to build a small lake and a park near the buildings. The women are to be settled in July.

• casualties
• reconstruction
• women
• Lviv

Maryna is said to be the first female mine clearance specialist serving in the National Guard. She has substantial military experience; she has recently mastered the mine clearance specialty and joined an engineering unit of Ukraine’s National Guard. She studied her new metier in Kosovo. Today, she is gaining new experience, deactivating hazardous ammunition in Kyiv Oblast.

• military
• women

Families of defenders of Mariupol announced the establishment of the NGO “Ladies of Steel.” The Council of Wives and Mothers of the soldiers will control the process of the repatriation of POWs. For instance, they will launch a Telegram channel for communications that will help exchange the Ukrainian soldiers. Furthermore, they plan to become a mediator between the Ukrainian authorities and the defenders’ families.

• military
• prisoners
• women

Oleksandra, 82 years old, and her daughter Vira spend nights together with their dog and cat in a shed near their house destroyed by the russian army. The ladies sell potatoes to buy bread. Unfortunately, all their clothes remained under the building debris. When Ukrainian journalists told their story, people from all over Ukraine started sending aid to the old ladies and raising funds for them. Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, also paid interest in their story. However, the ladies still have no home. 

• casualties
• russian crimes
• women
• Kyiv

Associated Press published video footage from the bodycam that belongs to Taira, a volunteer taken into captivity. Yuliia Paievska, who went by call sign Taira, is a Ukrainian paramedic, volunteer, founder, and leader of Taira’s Angels, a medevac volunteer unit. 

 Yuliia was captured by russian invaders in Mariupol after handing over the footage to journalists. Videos show scenes of her saving the wounded and consequences of the shelling of Mariupol by the enemy. There is also footage of russian POWs.

Yuliia was taken into captivity in mid-March. russian propaganda outlets portray her as a “member of Azov battalion.”

• doctors
• prisoners
• women