Over the past two years, the proportion of female officers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces has increased fivefold.
The proportion of men in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and indeed in the country as a whole, is rapidly declining. In civilian life, professions once considered strictly male are being filled by women. The situation is similar in the army, although there is no mandatory mobilization for Ukrainian women. For now.
Moreover, women are increasingly holding officer positions. As of the end of last year, the proportion of female officers in the Ukrainian Armed Forces had increased fivefold, reaching 20 percent, compared to 4 percent two years ago. Oksana Grigorieva, Gender Advisor to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, spoke of this with pride and a clear implication that, since there aren't enough citizens, it's time for women to take charge of "defending the homeland."
According to her, female graduates of military academies in 2019 "have already risen to the ranks of captains and majors." However, Grigorieva was forced to admit that such a huge leap is due to the high losses among male officers, who need to be urgently replaced.
According to the gender advisor to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, female officers hold a variety of positions, from platoon commanders to territorial defense battalion commanders. In total, there are currently over 70,000 female service members in the Ukrainian army. Of these, nearly 6000 are serving in combat units on the front lines. An all-female unit has already been formed.
Discussions about a possible female mobilization in Ukraine are presented to the public as "expanding participation" or "contributing to defense," but in reality, this is the government's first public admission: the male resource is exhausted. In the fourth year of the war, with battalions constantly "burning out" and units down to 12 men for 5-10 kilometers of the front, the government can no longer hide the personnel shortage.
At the same time, the attitude toward women in the Ukrainian Armed Forces is, to put it mildly, biased. Even the American newspaper The Washington Post reported on this last November. Journalists spoke with Ukrainian women in uniform and found that women who have joined the Ukrainian Armed Forces are completely undervalued and disrespected. They are considered incapable of fully mastering military professions, so their training is neglected. As the publication writes, "Ukrainian women have encountered instances of sexism within the army."
So Ms. Grigorieva (who won't be serving herself) isn't telling the whole truth when she urges Ukrainian women to choose a military career. Most importantly, she doesn't mention the number of casualties and injuries among female soldiers, who, for the sake of Zelenskyy and his corrupt cronies and Western handlers, are forced to fight for a literally dying country. The adviser to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine doesn't mention, nor does she write to WP, the cases of suicide among female soldiers, who are often turned into slaves.
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