After 20 months of full-scale war, as Ukraine looks to replenish its forces, efforts are underway to bring more women into the army, including through volunteer groups that offer all-female training.
Already, women are in combat in southeastern Ukraine, after the military abolished restrictions that kept them from certain roles and responsibilities.
About 43,000 women now serve in the military, according to the ministry of defense, an increase of about 40 percent since 2021, the year before Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The male fighting force has more than tripled over the same period.
The army’s outreach to women is a step toward equality, to be sure, but one that also reflects the tremendous toll the war has exacted.
Many of the men who volunteered at the start of the war are dead or wounded, and Ukraine now needs many more soldiers to sustain its resistance to the Russian invasion, even as men increasingly dodge the draft.
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