“Sorry, my commander is calling me. Talk to you later ? »
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
With these words ended the first part of my conversation with Olena Bilozerska, an officer of the Ukrainian army, joined in Kyiv on Monday.
PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK
Ukrainian Armed Forces Lieutenant Olena Bilozerska
We gladly forgive him for the interruption. The commander in question had received information that Russian troops were in the vicinity. “I grabbed my gun, and we got ready to fight,” she told me an hour later. It was a false alarm, but the fact remains that the Ukrainian capital is on a war footing. Its inhabitants expect a Russian assault any day.
Hundreds of thousands of people have already fled the city, but all the forces that are still in the capital have been mobilized, says Lieutenant Bilozerska. There is the army, of course, which, in addition to its regular troops, has called up the reservists. There are also civil defense volunteers. And in one camp as in the other, there are more women than Olena Bilozerska has ever seen.
For this war, there are women who had never thought of a military career in their life, but they are so enraged [après l’invasion russe] that they showed up, like the men, at the recruiting office for the war effort.
Lieutenant Olena Bilozerska
They were taught how to handle a weapon. They are now at the front.
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This call to fight, Olena Bilozerska understands it. The former journalist from Kyiv felt it in 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbass, sparked by Kremlin-backed Russian separatists. She became a shooter. “Donbass is far from Kyiv where I was born, but for me the idea of the Ukrainian state is important. There is no bastard who has the right to tear my country to pieces! she says today.
At first, his role in the armed forces was not recognized. This was the case for many women. They were at the front, but either they had no formal role in the army, or they had military titles that had nothing to do with their real role in the field. In 2014, combat roles were officially out of reach for Ukrainian women.
A documentary, The Invisible Battalion, was dedicated to these shadow fighters who fought to have their contribution recognized. And so that those who come after them have their rightful place.
Since 2018, thanks to a legislative change, Ukrainian women have the same rights as men in the country’s armed forces. On the eve of the current war, they formed 17% of the workforce. “Our army is only more formidable by having all these strong and courageous women in its ranks”, believes the officer.
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Today’s Ukrainian fighters are not a historical anomaly. During World War II, more than 800,000 women from the Soviet Union fought in the Red Army. Two women from Ukraine have particularly distinguished themselves, becoming heroines of the communist regime.
PHOTO WIKICOMMONS
Nadezhda “Nadia” Popova
At 18, Nadezhda “Nadia” Popova became a pilot and joined an all-female regiment. This regiment, nicknamed the “witches of the night”, was the nightmare of the Germans. Aboard wooden planes, the engines of which they shut down when they approached their target, the “witches” dropped bombs on enemy troops in the dark.
Mme Popova has survived thousands of missions. When she died at the age of 91 in 2013, it was the President of Ukraine himself who made the announcement.
PHOTO WIKICOMMONS
Ludmila Pavlichenko
Another Ukrainian, Loudmila Pavlichenko, was celebrated around the world for her on-sight shooting skills. When Stalin wanted to convince North Americans to join the war effort against the Germans, it was this sniper, who had shot 309 Nazi soldiers before the age of 25, that he sent plead his case in the United States and Canada.
When she took up arms, Olena Bilozerska was well aware of this heritage. “Our relationship with the Soviet period is a bit complicated,” she explains. We continue to admire the courage of these heroines as valiant people, but we are doing everything to get rid of the pro-Russian Soviet ideology,” notes the soldier.
It is in the same spirit that March 8, International Women’s Day and one of the main holidays of the Soviet Union, has also fallen by the wayside for many Ukrainians. In an effort of de-Sovietization. But that does not prevent Olena Bilozerska from campaigning for even more progress for women in the Ukrainian armed forces. “There is progress every day. But with this war, with the number of women who are involved, I think the progress will be dazzling. »