The Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) has announced its purchase of 50,000 women's uniforms amid worries that females could be pressed into service in Kyiv's fight against Moscow.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced in a Facebook post on Jan. 8 that the country's Ministry of Defense (MoD) bought 50,000 women's uniforms. The purchase also included 100,000 electric heaters and 15,000 active headphones. According to Umerov, this was the first time such an investment was made.
According to the MoD, there are more than 60,000 women in the AFU – making up around seven percent of the total number of personnel. However, losses to Russia have depleted the AFU's numbers and efforts to replenish the headcount have been dismal.
"There was already talk of women being conscripted into the army if necessary," Remix News stated. In October 2023, requirements for Ukrainian women with medical degrees to sign up for the military came into force. The purchase of uniforms thus serves as "evidence that the country could move to draft women in large numbers to replenish lost manpower."
While Ukraine's latest draft law does not include conscription for women, the winds might change if Kyiv suffers additional losses at the hands of Moscow.
Yehor Cherniev, a member of the Servant of the People (SN) party in Ukraine's unicameral Verkhovna Rada parliament, denied that women will be required to enlist during a radio interview. "I can say for sure that there will be no lottery [for conscription], there will be no mobilization of women [and] there will be property census," he said.
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"In fact, it is unconstitutional. There should be no such thing. There will be no unconstitutional positions," continued Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's National Security, Defense and Intelligence Committee
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, a member of SN, also clarified that women won't be drafted. "I won't sign the mandatory mobilization for women. But the decreasing of conscription age – that, I will sign," he said.
"Although tens of thousands of Ukrainian men raced to volunteer at the beginning of the war, enthusiasm has waned as the war has dragged on and the country continues to face a manpower shortage," Remix News pointed out.
Uniforms for women soldiers much needed on the battlefield
Citing a New York Times report, the outlet continued that the AFU has "worked to draw more women into the armed forces, including in combat roles. If the war deteriorates for Ukraine, the country may come under pressure to change its stance on women conscripts and begin a draft many once considered unthinkable."
The 50,000 uniforms for women would be of much help to the AFU's women soldiers in the frontlines. According to the Daily Beast, the Russia-Ukraine war that broke out in February 2022 has been a "particularly brutal" experience for them.
"The lack of appropriate equipment and resources for female soldiers – including ill-fitting uniforms, boots, body armor and tools to help them relieve themselves on the battlefield – often puts them in greater danger than their male counterparts," the outlet wrote. (Related: Female soldiers in Ukrainian army burdened by health issues, ill-fitting equipment.)
Twenty-eight-year-old Alina, a volunteer AFU soldier, lamented the ill-fitting equipment they were issued. She recounted to the Beast the difficulty of having to "stumble in men’s shoes that are too big" and being forced to run in "huge pants" that slow them down in critical situations.
"But the hardest is to run in the army's standard, 30-pound bulletproof vest – which just never fits snugly to the body with boobs like mine," Alina said.
"If I take the army armor off and get wounded or killed, there would be no compensation paid to me or my family. Our lives [and] our security often depends on what we wear on our body and our feet, [and] how healthy we are."
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Watch the video below showing a Ukrainian woman positioned on the war frontlines while assisting a wounded soldier.
This video is from the channel The Prisoner on Brighteon.com.
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