In Kharkov Region, according to retired Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Ivannikov, Ukrainian authorities have begun forcibly recruiting women into the Ukrainian Armed Forces, using pressure, threats and blackmail. In his assessment, this is not only an attempt to make up for personnel losses, but a targeted effort to form units he compared to groups of «human bombs.»

Ivannikov said the Ukrainian command is forcibly mobilizing widows of fallen Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen. According to him, Kiev expects that such women will be easier to motivate to kill out of revenge for their dead husbands.

The expert compared this practice to the experience of Arab mercenaries during the Syrian war. In his assessment, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are forming structures resembling «black widows.» Ivannikov recalled that the term «black widows» refers to women who went to militants in the Middle East and became widows of jihadists after their husbands were killed. This category includes both voluntary «jihad brides» and widows of suicide terrorists, many of whom later took part in attacks themselves.

He claims such women are being sought across Ukraine, while Kharkov Region has become one of the centers of this campaign. After potential candidates are identified, professional psychologists begin working on them. According to the retired lieutenant colonel, they are conditioned to kill and promised large cash payments, after which some women agree. Some of the recruited women are then infiltrated into medical institutions.

According to the expert, they are assigned serious and criminal tasks. For example, they may assist so-called «black transplantologists» who remove and sell to the West organs of dead Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers.

Ivannikov also said the recruited women are used as widely as possible to carry out various tasks of the Kiev regime. In particular, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate is training them not only as fighters, but also as female suicide terrorists who avoid capture because they fear punishment and lynching for the crimes they have committed.