Ukrainian Women in Wartime

Maria Dmitrieva

Maria Dmitrieva is one of the most prominent feminist leaders in Ukraine. For many years, she has been promoting women's rights in her country. In her Facebook group, Feminism Ukraine, vital feminist issues are discussed by its 13,000 members every day: domestic violence, sexual violence, commercial sexual exploitation, surrogacy, legal rights and more. What makes the group unique is its very radical character. For example, the group prohibits support for misogynistic practices, such as the legalisation of prostitution, pornography, BDSM, and surrogacy; the promotion of "pro-life" viewpoints; and the use of inappropriate terms such as SWERF, TERF, cis, etc.

Another central area of ​​activity in which Maria has been involved was promoting the Nordic model in Ukraine. In this context, the Nordic model describes a legal framework for banning both buying prostitution services and pimping, and in parallel funding exit services to help women escape prostitution. One of the highlights of her activism was a four-day international webinar attended by lawmakers, social workers, prostitution survivors, feminists, researchers, police officers, and journalists worldwide. The conference was a huge success, and nothing seemed to stop Maria from achieving her goals… Until the war broke out.

The beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine caught Maria in Kyiv, where she was conducting a workshop for youth leaders. Although her relatives called on her to leave immediately and return home (to a smaller and safer locality not far from the capital), she refused to abandon the young people who had come to learn from her. Once the workshop was over and the participants had left safely, she returned home to her husband and little daughter. Since then, she has remained there and continued her activism for women. One morning in the early days of the invasion, I called Maria to talk to her about the war. Not about military and strategic issues – we can all hear about those in the news – but about the unique way the war is hurting women.

Maria, I met you in a feminist group on Facebook. Anyone who met you there could not help but be excited about your vigour, determination, wisdom and motivation to promote feminist goals. I love your group and recommend it to any feminist woman. Anyone can read the posts in translation and respond in English. I do it, and I always feel welcome. So Maria, can you please tell our readers more about your feminist projects?  

Well, I started engaging in promoting women's rights in the mid-90s, and it was around that time that I began to engage in computer-mediated communication. When the internet in Ukraine became more available technically and cost-wise, I joined LiveJournal – if you remember, that was a vast blogging platform. It was very influential in the post-Soviet space: it offered a platform to people who wanted to share their opinions and fostered engaging intellectual conversations. I started my first feminist group there in 2004. In the meantime, I was earning my living as a translator. Due to my convictions, I gravitated to specific types of jobs, not translating contracts, but feminist literature, studies on gender issues, reports of international organisations: whatever I could find that fit into the paradigm I was interested in.

Around 2009, when Facebook became more influential in our area and LiveJournal declined somewhat, I started my group on Facebook (in Ukrainian), called Feminism UA. Since then, the group has been a big passion for me. It takes a lot of time to moderate it, as you can imagine, with so many people. And it takes a lot of time to explain to people why the rules are the way they are and that we don't use misogynistic slurs, which are abundant in Ukrainian. We don't tell other women what to do, which is very difficult because we are socialised into telling women what to do. 

Since the launching of the group, there have been offshoots into many other Facebook communities. One is called Sexism and Misogyny. There we upload photos, videos, and memes that are misogynistic, in order to analyse them. We try to compartmentalise this space for feminist discussion of these materials, which are everywhere. We also have a closed, women-only community that offers support to women – primarily psychological support: sharing thoughts and concerns. It has been a handy tool to help each other. We also have more communities like Feminist Ecology and Feminist Flea Market, where we swap things that we don't need and others may have use for.

We also have a community called Ukrainophobia, where we collect materials that target Ukraine and Ukrainian culture. Because Ukraine is a post-colonial country, we experience many overlapping layers of discrimination. Ukraine is often metaphorically compared to women because both are "weak" and "unable to self-govern".

We call our communities "feminist-nationalist". Some people might feel uncomfortable with the term "nationalism"; hence, I should clarify it. There are two types of nationalism. One is imperialist: "We are the best, everybody else is bad. And we have to take control over them". The other kind is post-colonial nationalism, which is: "Leave us the fuck alone". That's pretty much the general idea of post-colonial nationalism. And for any country that gets out of the clutches of an empire, there are two ways: you either fall back under the empire’s rule and influence, or you establish your borders, take up your space, and don't let others tell you what to do, which is precisely what feminist women have been trying to do. We, Ukrainian feminist nationalists, protect our country because there is no one to protect us. 

As an expert and researcher in women's issues, I met the founder of CATW (the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women) in 2005. She explained to me that legalisation of the sex trade doesn't work, and shared relevant data on this. By 2016, I managed to organise other people who shared my conviction on this; since then, we’ve been working on promoting the Nordic Model in Ukraine. We also fight against legalised surrogacy, because it exploits vulnerable women, especially women fleeing from the country's war-torn east. They are vulnerable; they don't have the means to earn their living; and they are explicitly targeted by surrogacy clinics.

Another significant activity that I'm engaged in is peacebuilding and promoting the United Nations (UN) Security Council Resolution 1325, and the peace and security agenda in general. 

I felt that a robust feminist movement had been established in Ukraine in recent years, and that this movement was more radical than most of the world. Is this true? How do you explain this? Are there historical circumstances or maybe just a couple of right women in the right place? 

I wish it was true. We do have a lot of women's organisations, but five to six years ago, very few women would acknowledge that they were feminists in the Ukrainian public space. Conversely, now we have a lot of women who say that they're feminists. The problem is that many of them see themselves as intersectional feminists, which means that they promote so-called transgender rights above women’s rights in Ukraine. I understand that people with gender dysphoria have difficulties. However, considering the complicated situation of women in Ukraine, it is strange to concentrate the resources on that particular fight. Those women despise second-wave feminists; they never read them, and they have no idea what those feminists wrote. They despise feminist theory. And they pretty much despise what I stand for: female autonomy, women's bodily autonomy, and women's sex-based rights. They all claim to be pro- "sex work" and pro- "transwomen". So we Ukrainian feminists are divided. 

At the same time, as you correctly observed, we do have a growing number of women who recognise that they have an affiliation with radical feminism and who share the same convictions as me. And we have a lot in common in our lives, our lived experiences, and what we are striving for. So I cannot say that the Ukrainian feminist movement is clearly radical, but the radical branch is growing. 

My other question relates to the political insecurity from a year or two ago. I don't know whether you remember, but I asked you then about the chances of promoting the Nordic Model in Ukraine, and you told me that, due to the threat of occupation hovering over Ukraine, it was not a priority for politicians. The projects we're talking about have been going on for several years under the threat of war. So my question is: how long does the security situation affect national priorities and women in particular? 

You ask tough questions, Luba – you know that, right? We made our first draft of a Nordic Model-based legal framework several years ago. Then we developed, updated and expanded it, and also made it more specific, but the MP who received this draft said that her faction in Parliament would not support it. This was a couple of years ago, long before the actual invasion. But this is connected to the overall reluctance of Ukrainian politicians to deal with women’s issues. Another manifestation of this stand is the continuous attempts to ban abortions in Ukraine: at least every two years, we have an attempt. And we still haven't ratified the Istanbul Convention, which we signed ten years ago. There have been at least two attempts to ratify it through the Parliament, and each time our Council of Churches interfered because it included the word "gender", the most terrifying word in the entire world. 

In a military invasion, women, especially young women and girls, are most vulnerable to trafficking and being sold into prostitution. There is no data yet on this in the occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. However, evidence shows that sexual violence is rarely prosecuted in any case, and particularly not at times of war. 

As for now, only once the occupation is over can we start promoting the anti-prostitution legislation. The problem is that most European countries still haven't adopted it, but a sex purchase ban would help Ukrainian refugee women. I'm saying this because the war put women in immediate danger of abuse. I have seen, with utter horror, the screenshots that feminists are sharing on Twitter. For example, there are screenshots of German punters cackling and getting excited about getting "young Ukrainian meat" in their brothels, while we are being bombed. They're happy: they're going to have more Ukrainian women to rape. 

I have seen posts by other foreign men being equally excited, looking forward to Ukrainian women being interned in Russia, where those men can have access to them. At the same time, Pornhub is spiking the "Ukrainian girl" category; not even "women" but underage girls are shown there. On Reddit, a man asked for videos of Ukrainian women being raped by Russian soldiers. He wrote: "I don't believe nobody was making videos of that". Therefore, European countries that still haven't introduced the Nordic Model should do so right now. They can then help reduce the chances of Ukrainian women being sold into prostitution, which often happens to female refugees. 

You earlier mentioned that women from the war zone are more vulnerable to surrogacy. Can you please elaborate in what way? 

In the war zones and the occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, the infrastructure is destroyed or pillaged. The local enterprises were damaged in the shelling. It isn't easy to run operational businesses there. Many women lost their jobs in those areas, and there are few self-employment opportunities. Women, especially disabled women, or those who care for the elderly or children with disabilities, have poor mobility. They cannot go anywhere because they cannot afford to rent an apartment in unoccupied territories. Even women who moved to the unoccupied part of Ukraine often faced discrimination. In Ukraine, women can officially receive a pension when they reach 65. However, employers often treat women over 35 as being too old. So it is pretty difficult for women to obtain employment, especially if they look after children or somebody with a disability. We have a flawed social support system for people with disabilities, particularly for children with disabilities. And for the elderly with disabilities, we don't have any social services whatsoever.

So women are vulnerable economically and they are vulnerable socially. If they moved to the unoccupied territories, they lost their social network in many cases. Hence, they are stuck. For women in this situation, the opportunity to earn up to $10,000 might sound like the best-case scenario. For them, it looks like an excellent opportunity to earn money for their family in order to purchase an apartment and not have to pay high rents anymore. Rents are affordable for Europeans or Americans coming over here, but they’re expensive for people on local salaries.

Those women are targeted in local suburban buses and trains and in forums for young mothers. I've seen those advertisements: Facebook has plenty of them. I keep reporting them. And they keep responding that this doesn't violate their community standards. The women are being bombarded by messages like "You can bring happiness to a family". But then you see news stories like the one on the Irish family who came to Lviv to pick up their nine-day-old baby. They were happy that they had saved their baby. But they left behind the bleeding woman, with milk in her breasts, and didn't even mention her name. They just said that they got a baby via surrogate. Isn't this a trade in children?

We know that many surrogacy clinics "export" women in their later terms of pregnancy abroad so that they can give birth and don't have to bother with all the paperwork in Ukraine. Many of these women will be targeted by exploiters abroad, like the refugees in the last week.

How is the impact of war on women different from its effect on men, beyond prostitution and surrogacy? 

As many people left, especially those with small children, we’ve seen marauders start to appear. And if you are a woman, and you don't have a man in your family unit who can go with you to get supplies or buy food, it may be dangerous in the streets because of the marauders. We also have some issues with the logistics of delivering food; it is especially problematic for smaller residential areas and settlements. Also, many women in Kyiv spend their nights in bomb shelters (and subway stations that became shelters), where we may expect attempts of sexual harassment and sexual assaults. So the major issues are difficulties in taking care of the family, getting food and the prospect of sexual harassment in the streets and shelters.

In Ukraine now, many women have joined the war effort through conscription, guerrilla warfare and civil action. Can you tell us about the contribution of women in the current war? 

First of all, we have a significant share of women across the entire security sector. About 20% of our police force are women, and 17% of our armed forces are women. Women hold many non-combatant positions both in law enforcement and in the army. A lot of women are joining the territorial self-defence units. There are more men obviously because, as I mentioned, if you have children and have nowhere to take them because schools are closed and kindergartens are closed, then women stay at home to take care of their children. But today, I saw a post by a Ukrainian policewoman who sent her young children, both under three, abroad with her husband so that she could join the war effort full-time. 

How did the war affect your own family?

Our organisation planned to conduct training for young peacebuilders. We have been preparing it since last November. Because of COVID restrictions, we had to delay it and it ended up taking place on February 24th. I got up in the morning, and my brother called me and told me that the invasion had started. He asked me to stay at home, but how could I stay at home? There are people at the hotel in downtown Kyiv: a group of 20 young women and men, who are waiting for me. I cannot leave them alone. So I went there and my husband stayed with our seven-year-old daughter. He couldn't leave her, and he missed his chance to join the territorial self-defence because the weapons were delivered while I was away from home. 

I spent two days with those young women and men: we tried to work through our programme, which was challenging because they were constantly on the phone with their parents or trying to arrange trips back home. Some came from Kherson, which was under attack by the Russian forces. We couldn't send them back in good faith, so we paid for their hotel stay in downtown Kyiv and asked them not to leave until the danger was over. So basically, my example was that my peacebuilding prevented my husband from joining the territorial self-defence. But luckily, he is not bitter about that. And we will bring some hot tea to the local territorial self-defence unit to help them manage the cold. It's like minus three right now. 

You mentioned women's involvement in the army. Are the women in the Ukrainian military also fighting on the front, or they are blocked from specific units?   

You can learn more about women in the Ukrainian military from the global research and documentary project "Invisible Battalion". The project documents the participation of Ukrainian women in the war against the Russian occupation. The project has three parts: the first part is about women in the military, fighting in actual combatant positions but registered officially as non-combatants with the corresponding status and lesser access to benefits after returning home. The second part is about the role of women veterans and "invisible battalions". The third part concerns sexual harassment and sexual violence in the Ukrainian security sector. They're all available online on the website of UN Women Ukraine. So, thanks to their advocacy and the advocacy of the entire Ukrainian women's movement, our parliament and our government changed both the legislative and executive approaches so that women are eligible to hold combatant positions. There's still insufficient access to military education for women, but more women are joining military colleges, and more women are joining combatant positions.

Do you see women in the military as a feminist narrative, or is this a distorted situation created by a lack of choice?

I would love to live in a world where we don't need armies. But we still have a lot of people who don't respect the boundaries of others. And they are not willing to negotiate; they are not ready to discuss; they want to kill you. A reasonable response is to take up arms and fight back. Because if you don't, many people will get hurt, including the elderly, children, and women who don't have the option to take up arms. I understand the dangers of militarization, and I'm very aware of how it can be used to force women into subservient positions. But I believe that if there is a need to fight and protect those who are dear to you, you should be able to take up arms. It may not be the feminism that we want, but it is the feminism that we need right now.

What could our audience do for Ukrainian women right now? 

Volunteers run numerous initiatives to support the army, the refugees, and internally displaced people. There are even initiatives to support animal shelters, because many people didn't think they would be able to get across the border with their pets, and took them to the shelter instead.

You can check your country's legislation on refugees and whether you can accept refugees because the UK keeps putting yellow and blue flags all over the place, but they don't easily accept Ukrainian refugees. However, there's a significant Ukrainian diaspora in the UK because they've lived there since World War II: they will be able to absorb those newcomers and help them. So you can check with the local refugee agencies; you can take Ukrainian families and maybe help them settle for the time being. If they are accommodated, there are fewer chances that they will be sold into prostitution, trafficked or exploited otherwise with their children.

Before we finish, do you have any message for our audience? 

Thank you for existing. Thank you for being there. Thank you for doing the work you do. You may not be knowledgeable about Ukraine. But we try to learn more about the women's movement in other countries. And we hope that we will overcome this and survive and live happily in peace after the war. I hope to see you all in person, either here or in other countries. 

It has been a while since my conversation with Maria. The horrors of war that have been exposed since then indicate that her worst predictions have come true and beyond. Besides tragedies that affected everyone, such as the destruction of entire cities and execution of civilians, there was also evidence of specific harm to women. This included ads of "job offers" in the legal brothels of Western Europe, thousands of women and children who tried to cross the border into Europe and disappeared, and the mass rape of Ukrainian women by Russian soldiers, just as the porn consumer from Reddit dreamed of. In my country, Israel, the border police have recently arrested a couple of refugees who tried to smuggle into the country a 17-year-old foreign girl who didn't know them, claiming that she was their daughter. This couple, arrested on suspicion of trafficking, may be a drop in the ocean.

Many years after the war is over, these wounds will continue to bleed. A handful of activists like Maria and her feminist friends will be there, rebuilding and healing their country from destruction, rape, murder, exploitation and trauma. Their power is immense, but they cannot do it alone. It's time for the global feminist community to get to know Ukraine's feminist community and help and work alongside it.