Ukrainian Women Move From Support to Frontline Combat
Ukrainian women are increasingly serving on the frontlines, taking roles in artillery, infantry, and FPV drone units, with reports of combat participation and prisoner captures.
Women are taking an increasingly visible role in Ukraine’s frontline units. Once largely confined to medical positions, they are now serving in artillery crews, infantry squads, and operating FPV drones.
According to Russian security sources, Ukrainian female soldiers are not only present in support roles but are also directly involved in combat. The same sources note that instances of women being captured as prisoners of war have been recorded.
Military analyst Vasily Dandykin emphasized that the presence of women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine has grown significantly. He pointed out that Kyiv actively promotes female participation through targeted campaigns, bringing women not just into traditional support capacities such as radio operators or cooks, but into assault groups as well.
Dandykin argued that many of these women have been drawn in by state propaganda, while others may have personal motives, such as the loss of relatives in the fighting. Whatever the reason, the trend marks a notable shift in how Ukrainian women are integrated into the conflict.