**Ukraine’s First-Ever Female Military Recruitment Campaign: A Glimmer of Hope in a War-Torn Nation**
In a bid to address critical manpower shortages, Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Khartiia Brigade has launched its first-ever military recruitment campaign targeting women. The initiative, which kicked off this May with the slogan “Her strength is her mind. Her choice is Khartiia,” aims to attract female recruits to tech roles in the army.
According to the Defense Ministry, around 70,000 women are currently serving in Ukraine’s nearly million-strong military, but their participation largely remains unwelcoming due to Soviet-rooted prejudice and limitations on education, career growth, and access to combat positions. However, progressive units like Khartiia are working to change this situation by updating internal practices to better integrate women into units.
**Breaking Down Barriers**
The campaign’s key driver, Alina Andreieva, a drone operator in Khartiia’s reconnaissance unit, is “obsessed” with the idea of recruiting women. She believes that motivated and skilled female recruits can make a significant difference in the army’s operations. “The commanders always treated women equally,” she said. “The priority was not gender, but how you handled the job.”
Andreieva’s sentiments are echoed by Ihor Raikov, a UAV platoon commander in Khartiia’s anti-tank guided missile company, who expects the number of female volunteers to increase. He notes that unmanned aerial vehicles favor intellect, intuition, and tech skills over physical strength.
**A Step Towards Equality?**
While some people are concerned that this initiative might be a step towards compulsory mobilization for women, experts argue that it’s untrue and that Ukraine is hardly ready for such measures. Kateryna Pryimak, a leader of the Ukrainian NGO Veteranka Movement which advocates for women in the army, believes that female soldiers will become more visible in the media as they take on various roles within the military.
**A Future with More Female Instructors**
Future female instructors, highly experienced with modern warfare, might revolutionize military universities where women face barriers in military education. This, according to Pryimak, would directly affect career advancement for these women.
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**The Results So Far**
While the results of the campaign are unlikely to show any immediate effects until this fall, according to Khartiia’s press officer Volodymyr Dehtiarov, more women have been applying for specific positions thanks to the campaign videos where women of Khartiia talk about their respective jobs. Dehtiarov notes that Dignitas Fund has also found donors to cover the training for dozens of female recruits.
However, he emphasizes that hundreds of positions in the Khartiia Brigade and thousands in the corps led by the brigade commander still need to be filled. As Pryimak puts it, “The time is ripe for women who want to take matters into their own hands.”
**A Call to Action**
Andreieva’s words sum up the sentiment: “Their husbands are either at war or dead; their homes have been destroyed, their loved ones killed or captured; they have seen too much to sit back idly.” The campaign is a glimmer of hope in a war-torn nation where women are taking on new roles and challenging the status quo.
