more and more women in military schools and the ranks of the army

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, women have played a central role in society but also in the Ukrainian army. In kyiv, the Ivana Bogouna military high school trains future soldiers who will join the ranks of the country’s army.

In the school museum, nothing but boys in uniform appear in class photos lining up next to each other…until 2019, when around twenty girls were admitted that year, under the impulse of Major-General Ihor Gorditchuk who directs the establishment. “Two students from this first promotion won first prize in the national military competition. They beat the boys in all areas. Since then, they have been accepted into a combat unit where they will do everything that men do”he explains.

Gender equality, which the country has been more concerned with since 2014 and the Maidan revolution, begins in high school lessons where boys and girls study together, from math to the art of dismantling a gun. An apprenticeship that suits Sasha very well, in her final year: “The boys are always in competition with us. But for me, it suits me to be at the same level as them.”

“That’s real gender equality, and that’s great.”

There are still four years of military academy in Evgenia. The young woman hopes that by then her country will no longer be at war, but she is preparing all the same. “As they say here, ‘the more sweat you lose in training, the less blood you lose in combat’. Thanks to that, I won’t be afraid”, she explains. Women represent 23% of the Ukrainian army, a feminization accelerated by the war when Russia has around 5% women in its ranks.