The Ukrainian government must get rid of the “old-school mentality” and implement true equality in the armed forces, Kiev’s chief military adviser for gender issues, Oksana Grigorieva, has claimed.
Kiev is currently in the process of overhauling its military service system, with Ukrainian lawmakers, debating increasingly harsh proposals to amend the country’s mobilization laws to lower the draft age and penalize draft-dodgers. While it has been said that the changes to legislation do not foresee the conscription of women, such proposals have been previously voiced.
“Our constitution states that it is the duty of every Ukrainian to protect their homeland, so it is only right that women serve too,” Grigorieva told The Times on Wednesday. Russia “isn’t simply going to disappear,” she argued, so “like Israel, we have to be prepared for this and that means training up both men and women to be ready for war.”
Ukraine’s armed forces continue to experience dire personnel shortages on the battlefield, as has been admitted by a number of top Ukrainian military officers and commanders, including Land Forces Commander Aleksandr Pavlyuk who warned on Monday that “no one can sit out” mobilization.
More than 45,000 women currently serve in the Ukrainian armed forces, the country’s Ministry of Defense said last month. Last year, all Ukrainian women who have a medical or pharmaceutical education were obligated to register with the military. In January, the Defense Ministry purchased 50,000 sets of women’s uniforms for the first time since the start of the conflict.
In order to encourage more female recruits to join the army voluntarily, changes in “old-school mentality” should be introduced from a young age, Grigorieva argued. “That has to change. Both physically and psychologically, we need to prepare girls from a young age to protect the country,” she claimed.
Though the government in Kiev insists only 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in two years of conflict, some military commanders have privately admitted this number is ridiculous. According to recent estimates from the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost over 80,000 troops over the past two months alone.
Last week, President Vladimir Zelensky enacted changes to the mobilization law draft, allowing the army to conscript 25-year-olds and abolishing several categories of exemptions from military service. However, certain categories of state employees have been given immunity for “critical” importance of their work – which apparently included several circus troupes, but not defense industry employees.
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