The Women Fighting on Ukraine’s Front Lines

0:01Today on State of the World, the women fighting Ukraine's front lines. You're listening to State of the World from NPR, the day's most vital international stories, up close with their happening. It's Tuesday, November 11th. I'm Christine Arismeth. About a million Ukrainian soldiers are defending Ukraine against a full-scale Russian invasion that's now nearing its fourth year, with no ceasefire in sight. Most troops are men, and many are drafted into service. But women are an increasingly visible presence. They're re-enlisting in rising numbers, fighting on the front line, advancing to key roles, and at times paying the ultimate price.

0:50NPR's Ukraine correspondent Joanna Kakissis introduces us to some of them. Her story begins in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev. And a warning, this story contains sounds of gunfire. The firing range outside Kiev is where 27-year-old Marina Mitsuuk spends her free time. She wears fatigues and focuses on hitting her targets. She is joining Ukraine's military, and she's waiting for the call that will send her to war. Of course, I'd like to be in a combat position, she says. With my build and height, I'm not a natural fit for that, so I'm training very hard. At a cafe, Mitsuk tells me about her life before the war.

1:35She studied folklore and Japanese at university. Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 changed her plans. I realized then, she says, that sooner or later, every one of us will end up in the military. So in 2023, she enrolled at Ukraine's National Defense University. She graduated this summer and can now serve as an officer and lead platoons. She says now brigades are offering me positions and asking me, are you ready to live with 40 men and command them? She smiles because here's the thing. Men between the ages of 25 and 60 can be drafted in Ukraine, but women are exempt. Mitsuk is choosing to fight, and she is not alone.

2:24Ukraine's military has a gender advisor, Oksana Gryoryeva, and she says women comprise about 8 percent of Ukraine's armed forces, but that their numbers have increased 40 percent since 2021. She says until a 2018 law, the military was very patriarchal, and women were not legally allowed to serve in combat positions or study all disciplines at military universities. Today, Grigoryeva says, a fifth of military cadets are women and thousands more serve in frontline roles, including infantry, drone operators, medics and engineers. Some of Ukraine's top military brigades also feature women in recruiting campaigns.

3:10The Khartiya Brigade is part of Ukraine's National Guard and an innovator in robotic warfare. This recruitment video shows a red-haired woman named Jess with a ribbon in her hair testing land drones. I am the only woman in this unit, Jess says. I am 21 years old. Evgenia and Dasha joined Hartia in 2024. They navigate aerial drones used for reconnaissance. We met them early this year at a hut used for drone repair in northeastern Ukraine. At the request of Ukraine's military, NPR is identifying some of the soldiers by their first names or military call signs. Yevgenia and Dasha wear puffy coats and sit on rickety stools next to a 3D printer that spits out drone parts.

4:00Yevgenia is 19 and she looks a lot like Arya Stark from Game of Thrones. She says male soldiers always ask her, what are you doing here? And what do you say?

4:15She says, I tell them I have to be here, and that's that. And why drones, she adds? I don't know, because I love to play computer games. Next to her is Dasha, who is 23, tall and stern. She was briefly married and wanted to be a police officer. She says her mother wept when she left for basic training. Dasha says, My mother wanted me to stay at home, be a wife, have children. And I chose what she calls a man's profession, something that will put my life at risk. Another drone operator in the unit, her name is Daria, is in a muddy field a short drive away. Daria is in her early 30s and used to be a software developer.

5:00her.

5:04As the sun sets, she tests a new aerial drone. She brings up her family. They can say, why? Why should she go to the world? She need to go to Europe and be in some safe place. And it's very strange in my mind that I'm speaking now with you. Because most of her relatives, she says, don't even know she is here, that she's a soldier. Meanwhile, she says, male friends have flood the country to avoid the draft. She struggles not to judge them. It's like it's their choice. They can do what they want to do. I can say everybody needs to do like me. Although, she adds, that's what she really wants to say.

5:46About 100 miles north in the city of Sumi, we met combat medic Olena Ivanenko, who was then serving in the 47th Brigade. She uses the call sign Rij. She's gone straight from the front line into a beauty salon. A nail master gently chisels at her manicure.

6:06She says, I know that in three days my nails will be grimy again, but looking at clean nails for just one day gives me such relief and pleasure. Riz is 44. She's high energy with fuchsia-tinted hair. She worked in the restaurant industry for 20 years before enlisting in 2023, serving first as an infantry soldier. She says, I decided after three months of service that I would stay in the army forever. I will not return to civilian life. I feel like I am 100 ,000 million percent in my place. Her service, though, has also brought her heartbreak. She chokes up when she recalls the 2023 battle in southeastern Ukraine, where many in her unit died, including one of her closest friends.

6:58He was the first to get blown up, she says, and I pulled him out of the dugout. This is probably the hardest thing for me in this whole war so far. Ridge says she sees the divide between soldiers and civilians growing.

7:17Soldiers say we are working for victory and civilians say we want peace, she says. But peace and victory are different things.

7:28Back in Kiev at a large exhibition hall, a soldier named Zina, after the warrior princess, walks onto a bright stage. Gothic metal blares as Ukraine's military intelligence shows off state-of-the-art weapons, sea drones equipped with machine guns and rockets. A version of these drones was used to shoot down a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea this spring. Zina is part of the team operating these drones. For security reasons, she and two other team members, both men, are in disguise in balaclavas and sunglasses. Because Zina also cannot reveal what she sounds like, her words are read by producer Polina Litvinova.

8:14Zina says sea drones have helped Ukraine push out the Russian Navy and reclaim control of the Black Sea. And we intend to keep modernizing the sea drones until we can target and hit Russian fighter jets, helicopters, and of course ships under any conditions. Zina joined the military 10 years ago and moved to this elite unit after the full-scale invasion. She has often been the only woman in her unit. And it's not easy. I do feel support from my guys, but sometimes they can act like kids, you know. They see my support role as bringing cookies or tea, something like that. She laughs into her balaklava and says she has more important things to worry about, like staying alive.

9:01Ukraine's military does not release casualty figures, but nearly every day there is a funeral for a soldier. In September, a large crowd filled Kiev's main cathedral to mourn one. The family clutched a framed portrait showing a smiling young woman with wire-rimmed glasses. Daria Lopatina, a military engineer. She was 19. Saluting her coffin was Ruslan Shalar, who works at the Defense Ministry. He says Lopatina was just eight years old in 2014, when Russia first invaded Ukraine's east and south. She grew up with war, he says, surrounded by people who had taken part in it. Her path was set. Marina Matziuk, the new recruit we met at the beginning of this report, acknowledges that joining the military is a high-stakes path.

9:55She looks around at the lively cafe that's part of her civilian life, and she looks me straight in the eye. She says, you know, I constantly think about it, about death. But it's better to die on the battlefield than from a missile hitting your apartment in Kiev. It's better to die fighting than on your knees. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, reporting from Kiev and northeastern Ukraine.

10:31That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.