Kyiv campaign for 8 March highlights stories of women in the armed forces – photos
Kyiv will display public adverts featuring the stories of four female service personnel with combat experience ahead of International Women's Rights Day. Their stories will appear on the metro, on street advertising boards and in the capital's shopping centres.
Source: Veteranka, a Ukrainian women veterans movement, in an interview with UP. Zhyttia (Life)
Details: The Veteranka movement initiated the "Women can do anything" campaign, creating comic-style adverts depicting women as modern-day superheroines.
Quote: "We are used to fictional superheroes in comics and games, but the real heroines are right next to us. They fly drones, command units and protect the skies and land.
This campaign is about the fact that women's role in the military is not an exception but a new multifaceted norm."
More details: The adverts will include the story of Yeva who goes under the alias Yunga (Sailor), an FPV drone operator with the Rubizh Brigade. She joined the armed forces at 18 after finishing school. In her first 18 months of service she destroyed 250 Russian assets.
"Her superpower is seeing in the dark and hitting an asset that threatens our cities," says the Veteranka movement.
Another featured servicewoman is Oksana "Oksi", the first commander of a combat group operating a ground robotic complex with the Omega special unit.
In her civilian life she was a successful businesswoman. After the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, she wrote a will, sent her two children abroad and joined Ukraine's defence forces.
The campaign also features Ania Tatu "Ksena", a UAV operator. A Pole with Belgian citizenship, she serves in the 37th Separate Marine Brigade.
"Despite living with a prosthesis, she chose the front line and won the right to serve in the marines. Her superpower is remarkable precision and the ability to spot a threat first in the night sky, saving thousands of lives," says Veteranka.
The campaign also includes Yana "Multyk" (Cartoon), commander of a women's UAV platoon in the 141st Separate Mechanised Brigade. Veteranka called her "a symbol of resilience and sisterhood".
She survived the Russian occupation of Kherson Oblast and sustained multiple service-related wounds, after which she led the first all-female unit of UAV operators. In her role she is "burning away prejudice and building a new army where every woman is protected and heard", the movement says.
Veteranka said the initiative is designed to reshape public perceptions of women's role in Ukraine's defence forces and to underline their contribution to protecting civilians.
Veteranka said the campaign is also expected to help close a major charity fundraiser of UAH 6 million (US$137,200). The money will be used to support mobile air defence groups of the 37th Separate Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and to purchase Heavy Shot bomber drones for the National Guard's Rubizh Brigade.
Background:
- Ukraine's Defence Ministry said that as of February 2025, the share of women joining the defence forces rose to 21%. The highest number of applications from women to recruitment centres was recorded in Chernivtsi Oblast.
- In 2025, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had more than 70,000 women, with more than 5,500 serving on the front line.
- Oksana Hryhorieva, gender adviser to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said the number of female officers in the Armed Forces of Ukraine has increased significantly over the past two years. At the beginning of 2023, women with officer ranks accounted for 4%, and today the figure stands at 21%.
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