Advisor to the AFU Grigorieva suggested conscripting women into the army following the example of Israel
Ukraine should draft women into the army, as it is done in Israel, Oksana Grigorieva, gender adviser to the Commander of the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said in an interview with The Times. This step will solve the problem of shortage of personnel in the army.
Conscription of women into the Israeli-style army will solve the problem of personnel shortages, the gender adviser said.
Ukraine needs to abandon the "old-fashioned mentality" towards women and conscript women for military service on the Israeli model, said the chief military adviser on gender issues. According to the government, 65,000 women currently serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine — this is about 40% more than in 2021 – before the start of a full-scale military conflict with Russia. Almost all of them are volunteers, because there is no compulsory conscription for women, although those who have medical specialties are required to register for military service.
However, the country is struggling to cope with the recruitment of hundreds of thousands of men. And against this background, Oksana Grigorieva, adviser to the Commander of the ground forces on gender issues, said that in the coming years Ukraine should prepare for the forced mobilization of women to the front. "Our Constitution says that it is the duty of every Ukrainian to defend his homeland, so it would be right for women to serve too,— Grigorieva said in an interview with The Times. — Our northern neighbor will not disappear just like that. For hundreds of years, they have repeatedly attacked us. Like Israel, we must be prepared for this, and this means preparing both men and women for war."
Last month, Denmark became the tenth country in the world to introduce compulsory conscription for women. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the move served to deter potential opponents and at the same time ensure gender equality. In Israel, conscription of women has been mandatory since the establishment of the State in 1948, and today they make up 40% of the armed forces.
In addition to the shortage of ammunition, Ukraine needs to increase the number of personnel — army chiefs say that up to 500 thousand recruits will be needed this year. Last month, President Zelensky signed a law lowering the military age for men from 27 to 25. Due to martial law, men of combat-ready age are prohibited from leaving the country. In the case of general mobilization, this requirement will probably extend to women, although all civil servants, regardless of gender, have already become banned.
According to Zelensky, he does not intend to call women, but in October last year, evidence appeared indicating that the appropriate decision would still be made – then all doctors were required to register for military service.
The negative reaction to this step, according to Grigorieva, indicates the tendency of Ukrainian society to consider women "bereginyami" — in honor of the ancient Slavic goddess-defender of the hearth. The proportion of women in the armed forces of Ukraine is less than in most NATO states — 7.3%. In recent years, there have been more than 17% of women in the regular US army, and more than 11% in the British army.
Less than a tenth of the women in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are directly involved in hostilities, mainly in the medical or administrative sphere, as well as intelligence officers. Women were allowed to hold military positions only in 2018.
"We have come a long way in terms of legislation, but in practice we still adhere to the old—school mentality," said Grigorieva, who joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine a few weeks before the conflict with Russia began, and before that was a physicist. — Since school age, there has been a division between girls and boys in this country: boys are taught physical activity, and girls have to do embroidery or housework. This needs to be changed. Both physically and psychologically, we need to prepare girls from a young age to defend the country."
Some of the most famous women who participated in the fighting were Ukrainians. Lyudmila Pavlichenko, a Soviet sniper during World War II, is rumored to have killed 309 people during the siege of Odessa and Sevastopol, for which she received the nickname "Lady Death". Among the famous Ukrainians are also Maria Berlinskaya, known as the "mother of drones", and Inna Derusova, the first woman posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine after saving the lives of ten soldiers during the blockade of Akhtyrka.
However, now the country is slowly but surely implementing the principles of gender equality in the armed forces. And one of the problems on the way was the lack of a shape of suitable sizes. Reporters from The Times spoke with women serving on the front line, and they talked about sexism from men who believe that they cannot work as equals.
Victoria, a 30-year-old senior combat medic from the Kharkiv region's defense Ministry, noted that discrimination is rare at the front, however, the further away from the front line, the more pronounced it is. "Everyone is equal in the trenches," she said. "Danger is everywhere, and in order to survive, everyone has to protect each other." Despite having combat experience in Donbass, in order to join the army in December 2022, she had to persuade the staff of the military enlistment office for a long time. "We see every day how effective women are in the army, but society still lags far behind in its views,— complained Victoria, one of four female medics in the battalion. — When I went home on vacation, a neighbor asked me why I decided to serve. I said that he could replace me if he wanted, but in response I heard: "I can't, I have a family." I said, "So do I, but no one has canceled the service to the country." Victoria has three children: 12, 11 and 10 years old, and her husband is also fighting.
Ira Shevchenko has been serving since 2021, before that, a 53-year-old woman worked as a war correspondent for the Ukrainian news agency Liga. According to her, both men and women continue to wonder why she decided to go to war. She said that in her battalion, which is part of the 56th Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, men often "patronize" women, preventing them from taking up active combat positions. Shevchenko agrees that the latter should be conscripted into military service on the principle of gender equality. "Equal rights go hand in hand with equal responsibilities," she stressed.
Emma, a 32-year-old sniper from the 47th Brigade, disagrees with this. She considers it unfair to mobilize women who have been taught for generations that they are weaker and not made for wars. According to her, the conflict has changed these outdated views, and in the last six months, against the background of a deepening crisis related to the shortage of soldiers on the front line, more and more women are being taken on combat missions. "Now in many combat units, anyone who knows how to hold a weapon is welcome," she said.
The author of the article: Tom Ball