Women fighting Putin’s troops reveal their harrowing secrets

KYIV—Vladimir Putin’s war was grueling for hundreds of thousands of soldiers fighting Russian troops on the front lines—but the invasion was especially brutal for the roughly 60,000 women serving in Ukraine’s military, according to several sources who spoke with The Daily Beast.

Besides the regular horrors of war, Ukrainian women who spoke with The Daily Beast said the lack of proper equipment and resources for female soldiers often puts them at greater risk than their male counterparts, including uniforms, boots, bulletproof vests and tools to help them relieve themselves on the battlefield.

“Try to go to the bathroom in the woods at 4 degrees Fahrenheit… We’ve all had cystitis or inflammation of the ovaries and back pain,” Julia, a 24-year-old Ukrainian soldier, told The Daily Beast at Kiev. week. “After a year of war, we have a bunch of all kinds of health problems.” (Julia and several other women who spoke with The Daily Beast for this story asked to be identified by their first names only.)

Julia’s 28-year-old sister, Alina, also serves in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In an interview with The Daily Beast alongside her sister, she said health problems caused by the lack of urinary tract devices or women’s diapers were “the least of the problems we have”.

Women in the military are often forced to “stumble in oversized men’s shoes” or run in “huge pants” that slow them down in critical situations, Alina said.

“But the hardest part is running around in the standard 30-pound army bulletproof vest, which never fits the body perfectly with breasts like mine,” she said. “If I take off the army armor and am injured or killed, no compensation will be paid to me or my family. Our lives, our safety often depend on what we wear on our bodies and feet, of our state of health.

Before the war, the two sisters worked as programmers in the technology industry and had just saved enough money for a planned vacation in Bali. That all changed in February last year, when they canceled their tropical getaway and instead opted to volunteer in the fight against Putin’s invasion, first in the outskirts of Kiev and then in Donetsk. .

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More than 100 military women have been killed in Ukraine since the start of the war, either in combat on the front lines, during evacuation missions or working with the press. But many of the fundamental problems that hold back women in war seem preventable: Experts and soldiers who spoke to The Daily Beast said they believe access to uniforms, medicine and specific equipment women’s needs would translate into more success on the ground. battlefield.

Tortured Ukrainian Women Forced to Sing “Glory to Putin!”

Ukraine is trying to solve this problem. The Daily Beast caught up with Alina and Julia at a warehouse event organized by the charity Zemliachky, a group dedicated to supporting Ukrainian military women, where a limited amount of new summer uniforms designed for women were presented and distributed. At the event, organizers said they negotiated with military officials to approve the uniform, which includes lighter armor specifically designed for the female body.

Addressing uniforms at a press conference on Thursday, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that “other models of women’s bulletproof vests and helmets are already being tested in combat units When there is a conclusion, the ministry by its order will approve the standard and officially order them for the defense system.

Runa, a 28-year-old little army volunteer, was overjoyed when she received her new uniform from Zemlyachky. Before that, the former Kiev florist – who now commands an artillery unit – wore uniforms about four times her size, including 30 pounds of body armor that hurt her muscles. “It fits perfectly, even for me, whose size is hard to find,” she said in a video showcasing the uniform.

Zemliachky founder Andriy Kolesnyk told The Daily Beast that the organization currently has enough funds to provide uniforms to only 10% of the 9,000 women who need them.

“We need to supply women with hundreds of items, but the priorities are uniforms – we need a million dollars to produce uniforms and shoes for all women. We only need a million dollars to dress all of our female defenders in the right size uniforms this summer. Their effectiveness and safety depends on how freely they can move, run, crawl, load weapons or operate a drone,” a- he declared.

During the event, Ksenia Draganyuk, a 27-year-old military volunteer who supports the organization, pulled out a box titled “Female Urinary Director.”

“Here’s what we girls use when there’s no chance to pee. When we asked all of our girl soldiers about their health issues, 90% of them complained of cystitis and yeast infections,” she said. “So our job is to keep female soldiers healthy because they are the future mothers of Ukraine.”

Despite the shortage of even the most basic resources like sanitary napkins, the dedication of dozens of Ukrainian women fighting in the war is unwavering, Kolesnyk told The Daily Beast.

“To a housewife somewhere in Oregon, it would probably seem crazy to have pregnant women fighting on the frontlines to defend Ukraine, but our country is under constant attack, so even pregnant women are fighting against the Russian invaders. until they are seven months pregnant. I currently have requests for specially designed uniforms and other important items from at least 10 pregnant soldiers,” he said. shortages for each item… So far no one has been able to help us.”

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