Ukrainian soldiers did not expect to repel the attention of women when they set out to fight President Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked attack. But when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine 16 months ago, it found itself in stardom for its work in defense of the homeland against its longtime oppressor.
For some women, supporting the troops has transcended fundraising and volunteering. They also send seductive text messages and unsolicited nude photos to soldiers they have never met on social media. The new fetishization of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has largely come as a welcome relief from the realities of war, allowing soldiers to escape for a few moments by talking to the women cheering them on.
For a few others, the deluge of sexual attention is a bit too much.
“It’s easier for me to politely reply that I have a girlfriend and delete,” said Vadim, a 24-year-old soldier stationed in the western Lviv region, who is trying to ensure his partner does not see the messages. “Why should I tell my loved one that someone is writing me to go out on a date?”
The soldiers’ newfound popularity surprised Dmitriy, who was at home in Enerhodar, Zaporizhzhia region of Ukraine, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022. He declined to give his surname in due to confidentiality concerns, but said that when the war started he was 25 and had just completed his six-year career in the Ukrainian army. But as Russia attacked Ukraine from all sides, Dmitriy grabbed his military gear and headed to the nearest recruiting center to re-enlist.
As a seasoned member of the Ukrainian military, Dmitriy had been training for a possible escalation of the conflict with Russia that had been unfolding in the eastern region of Donbass for nine years. He was used to life on the front lines, where every day was filled with violence and the deafening sounds of war. He was unprepared for the social media stardom that was to follow.
A week into the war, Dmitriy was deployed to Kherson, where he would defend Ukraine’s southern front.
The Russian army was twice the size of Ukraine’s, and Putin planned to have captured kyiv in just a few days. The future of the country was at stake.
The tireless efforts of the Ukrainian military to fight the Russians have created an immense sense of pride and enthusiasm for frontline soldiers whose daily lives have been widely documented on social media. Quick selfies taken in the trenches of Donbass or videos of men in active combat have led many soldiers to develop a social media presence.
At the start of the war, Dmitry posted photos of himself with military equipment and called on his followers to donate money to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Over the next 16 months, his followers would more than double, bringing the number of people who followed him in his fight for Ukraine to 21,000.
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However, he did not expect him to become an object of desire for Ukrainian women who hoped to capture the soldier’s attention while protecting them from Russia’s wrath. Dmitriy and nearly a dozen other members of the Ukrainian army whom The Daily Beast spoke to have been launched into stardom in Ukraine, where women send them sultry text messages while men hide under trenches on the front lines of war became the norm.
Photo illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and courtesy of Dmitriy
A 24-year-old soldier from the Donetsk region, whose name has not been released because he did not have military clearance to speak, told the Daily Beast that members of the Ukrainian army must have noticed an increase in the number of women who are interested in them. “I think it increases the fighting spirit,” he said. “Sometimes girls write, but not as often as I would like.”
Another soldier who requested anonymity said when he was more active on his Instagram page, which has 5,000 followers, he received more attention from women. “I like female attention. It’s good when women like soldiers,” he said.
But for Vadim, the soldier stationed in Lviv, the messages he deletes from admirers are an additional source of stress. He said that in the first five months of the war, the attention he received from women on Instagram skyrocketed.
For example, when he was stationed in Odessa, some women asked him to meet them on walks, and when he was in Lviv, some women in the army suggested that he ask them for appointments to take a glass. But Vadim told them no because he has a girlfriend. However, he said his friends in the military who are single “usually go on dates and appreciate the attention of women. It’s a stress reliever thing for them and a way to relax.
“If I were single, I would do the same. Imagine: after the service, no one is waiting for you at home and you want warmth, communication, affection. Everyone wants love, and for men in general, love is what helps them not to lose heart in difficult times,” he added.
Comments on the Instagram accounts of Ukrainian soldiers are unmissable. Some soldiers have tens of thousands of followers, and comments on their posts range from heart emojis to comments about men protecting Ukraine as “daddy.” Amid the swarms of comments from women, some soldiers met their partners through social media interactions.
Yulia, 30, met her soldier boyfriend, Nazar, 28, on a Telegram channel. Nazar is stationed in what Yulia called “hotspot zero” and the couple first met in person when Nazar was on leave to visit his parents in Drohobych, a town in western India. Ukraine in September 2022.
“It’s an indescribable admiration for a man, a real man, a worthy son of his country,” she said. She explained that what she liked the most about her boyfriend was that he had been a volunteer soldier in the Ukrainian army since 2014.
The attention soldiers are receiving now, according to Svetlana Pryimak, did not exist before February 24, 2022. us and what amazing people they are,” she said.
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But not all soldiers are equally open to advances. Pryimak said a man told her he didn’t want to meet her because he wasn’t sure he would survive the war. The soldier said that Pryimak could only offer him online communications instead of something more. “It’s sad. A lot of new soldiers don’t make new acquaintances because of this,” she said.
Dmitry said soldiers have bigger things to worry about than women on social media, but he added the new soldier issue was a welcome change from when he joined the military in 2016.
Speaking in a Telegram call while on vacation in Odessa for the first time after spending 10 months in combat, he said: “Nobody cared about the war in the east, people don’t didn’t pay attention to it, but when the war came to Kiev, in the capital, everyone began to praise the help of the army.”
As the war progressed, Dmitriy still received messages from women, but they came in waves depending on the state of the Ukrainian military. For example, last October, when Ukraine liberated 482 settlements in the Kharkiv region, the soldier said his number of messages increased.
National Guard soldiers of Ukraine walk along a trench towards their positions on the liberated territories in the northern Kharkiv region on October 21, 2022, amid the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Photo illustration by Erin O’Flynn/The Daily Beast/Getty Images and SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images
Sometimes Dmitriy can talk with a woman or two for a few days. Still, he said, “After a while you might not answer, so the texting isn’t that frequent, and then, like, that girl disappears, and you might not even notice it because you have more important things to do right now. and that’s how it happened.
On June 10, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky officially announced the start of the country’s counteroffensive. The aim of the offensive is to liberate areas in the southeast and around the eastern town of Bakhmut, considered the epicenter of the war for months. On June 12, Ukrainian officials announced that the army had liberated four settlements in Donetsk, including Neskuchne, which had been under Russian occupation for more than a year.
Now that Ukraine is liberating more and more villages from Russian occupation, Dmitriy said that on Instagram, women could use the opportunity to try to attract the attention of soldiers tasked with liberating the region.
“I don’t really want to meet anyone new. I want to sleep in a really good bed, eat something tasty. I’m not used to such things anymore because of the front lines. Right now I don’t want to spend time meeting someone new just for the sake of dating,” he said.
But Dmitriy said that instead of messaging soldiers, he preferred women to share fundraising posts on Instagram or donate money to the military. He noted that access to supplies has changed dramatically and “that’s the rule of life – when you do something important, people appreciate it and glorify you,” he said. . “What we have now with the war, everyone is grateful for the protection.”
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