KYIV -- Like men, they may fight as snipers and gunners or serve as scouts and medics, but until this month, Ukraine’s estimated 42,000 female soldiers had no uniforms of their own. They had to adapt to men’s uniforms.
Now, more than a year and a half into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Defense Ministry has decided to adapt to the clothing needs of these female personnel.
The ministry on August 5 approved a summer uniform set for the armed forces’ female personnel -- one of the few such decisions in the world, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar claimed.
“It’s worth noting that far from all countries, including NATO countries, have a female uniform -- much less a field uniform for women” that has been tried out in the combat zone, Malyar said.
Ukraine, she said, is “one of the first.”
The United States introduced a standard-issue female uniform for U.S. Army personnel in 2020, according to the U.S. Army website.
For some women soldiers, Ukraine’s decision to do the same signals respect for them as both women and military professionals.
“I haven't seen a single woman who would wear a jacket or something else from a man’s issued uniform,” said Anastasia, a twentysomething soldier who gave only her first name.
Women used pins, straps, and alterations to make do, but the result was not always satisfactory, she said.
“Either you’ve got wings [of material] sticking out in the back, or the buttons just won’t fasten in the front, and there’s no way you can breathe,” she said.
The boxer shorts still distributed to Ukrainian women soldiers as regulation underwear are an additional target for change.
Vira, another soldier, says she just gives hers away to fellow soldiers who are men.
“Let’s put a man in a bra. Instead of a T-shirt, put on a bra,” she joked. “Will that be comfortable for you? No, it won’t be comfortable.”
Monthly menstruation makes the boxers useless for women, Anastasia said.
“Excuse me, but how am I supposed to stick something to male boxers?” she asked, referring to adhesive sanitary pads. “How should I get out of this situation? These are absolutely natural things that they don’t pay attention to.
“But we’re getting there,” Anastasia added. “And that’s wonderful.”
The official number of female soldiers in Ukraine has doubled since 2015, when women rushed to respond to Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea and the start of an armed campaign by Moscow-backed anti-Kyiv forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Today, some 5,500 women serve on the front line, according to the Defense Ministry.
Ukrainian women have been allowed in active combat since 2018, but the military’s “infrastructure” has struggled to catch up, sociologist Anna Kvit, who researches gender equality in the Ukrainian military for the advocacy project Invisible Battalion, commented earlier to RFE/RL.
The Kyiv-based volunteer group ArmWomenNow, a nonprofit that endeavors to meet female soldiers’ uniform needs, spearheaded the move for change – and started sewing uniforms. Its website lists as supporters Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko and his brother, a fellow celebrity boxer, reservist Wladimir Klitschko, plus a range of Ukrainian show-business personalities.
After volunteers with ArmWomenNow sewed some 5,000 uniforms, a working group was established that also included the Defense Ministry, a public initiative called Forma Two, and Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser on barrier-free issues. Designers took the military’s feedback into account, ArmWomenNow founder Iryna Nykorak says.
Female soldiers in training exercises tried out multiple versions of the uniform in fields and forests. Now, after several makeovers of the pockets, these soldiers have a uniform -- and a set of underwear -- that interviewees say suit their own bodies and needs.
Aside from jackets that accommodate female busts, the set features stretchable high-waisted pants to address complaints that male pants, hitting below the navel, chafe the skin and easily tear.
Pregnant women can use an expandable elastic band in the waistline of the trousers, which bear an ArmWomenNow tag. A sports-style black bra and brief complete the set.
WATCH: More than 5,000 women are serving in the Ukrainian Army amid Russia's ongoing invasion and occupation of their country. From special uniforms for pregnant soldiers to female toiletry kits, the Zemlyachky Foundation is tailoring military gear for Ukrainian women at war. (Originally published November 10, 2022)
The Defense Ministry has not yet begun production of these gender-specific uniforms, but female soldiers are able to try on samples designed for Ukraine’s rainy autumn, cold winter, and muddy spring at the workshop of the Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement, another organization that provides women with uniforms.
A helmet and body armor for women soldiers also are in the works. The ministry currently is reviewing whether samples of this body armor comply with its technical standards, according to a Defense Ministry press release that cites Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
