According to the Kyiv authorities, 13 women from the Ukrainian Air Force have been killed in battles against Russian troops to date, DPA reports.
About 7,000 women from the Air Force celebrated International Women’s Day “not with flowers, but with weapons in their hands,” Lieutenant General Mykola Oleshchuk said today.
“Side by side with men, they repel Russian aggression, fight for the future of their children and for the future of our Ukraine,” he said.
More than 1,500 women from the Air Force were directly involved in the fighting, Oleschuk said, adding that 16 of them had been awarded medals.
There are no official Ukrainian data on the total number of casualties among the armed forces.
According to political scientist Leandra Bias of the Swiss Peace Foundation Suispies, the share of women in the Ukrainian army is just over 15 percent. At the same time, the share of women in the Russian army has fallen to about 4% over the past year.