Decimus reports in Daily Kos:
In WWII Ukrainian women served with distinction in the Soviet Red Army … as snipers, tank commanders, pilots, and machine gunners. But the tradition of Ukrainian women as fearless warriors goes as far back to the history of the Ukrainian people with Princess Olga of Kyiv’s deadly vengeance on those who killed her husband, the King of Kyvian Rus. Today, there are many women fighting in various capacities in the war but in an official effort, the army aims to recruit women volunteers for the Mid-Range Drone Campaign. And the recruitment campaign is aptly named … “Strike Like Princess Olha”. Last week, Ukraine launched a campaign for the Unmanned Systems Forces which aims to recruit women for drone operations.
To answer the call to once again step into the breach … like their storied forebears did as recently as in WWII when Ukrainian women served with distinction in the Soviet Red Army … as snipers, tank commanders, pilots, and machine gunners.
They were integral to major victories as the Soviet military had to mobilize women en masse to compensate for staggering male casualties. Notably Lyudmila Pavlichenko aka “Lady Death” was a Ukrainian-born sniper still considered as the deadliest female sniper in history with 309 confirmed kills defending her homeland in Odesa and Sevastopol. She was honored as a Hero of the Soviet Union. Nina Onilova was an orphan who became a medic then a machine gunner famous for singlehandedly taking on a German tank at Sevastapol and destroying it with a handful of Molotov cocktails. Killed in action, she was also posthumously made a Hero of the Soviet Union. Alexandra Samusenko regarded by her male cohort as “fearless” became one of the Soviets premier tank commanders, and one of the few women to command and lead armored units into combat. She, too became a Hero of the Soviet Union. Just to name a few.
But the tradition of Ukrainian women as fearless warriors goes as far back as the foundational history of the people of Kyvian Rus. To many of us who have been immersed in the flow of this war, stories like that of the Ukrainian lawyer turned mortar assault platoon commander, Olga ” Witch” Bigar, is quite familiar. In the thick of the battle for Bakhmut, she and her men became famous for their intrepid assaults on the Russian lines:
A lawyer-turned-fighter codenamed ‘Witch’ has gained viral fame defending Ukraine as a mortar commander in the fiercest battlefronts of the war
Ukrainian officer Olga Bigar will not tell anyone how she received the callsign “Witch” until the war is over.
“But when I am asked,” she says with a grin, “I say it’s because I can set the sky on fire.”
She is still at it … still making proud the historic woman whose name she bears … Saint Olga of Kyiv. Princess Olga of Kyiv’s story is one of a woman’s deadly vengeance marked by use of clever subterfuge on those who killed her husband, the King of Kyvian Rus. And she often made ample use of her male opponent’s prejudice and under-estimation of women. Playing the agreeable, meek woman, Olga was clever and ruthless in ways men of that time would not have expected. She was totally ruthless in her war against the Drevlians for killing her husband, the king. But in the end, she is recorded as becoming a Christian convert and the one who brought Christendom to Ukraine after a visit to Byzantine Christian Constantinople. Thus her canonization as a saint.
And so it is that with the war pulling away and requiring more and more of the men folk, Ukraine is taking the first major national step to involve women on a large scale. There are already man women fighting in various capacities in the war but this is an official effort by the army to recruit, not mobilize, mind you, women volunteers for the Mid-Range Drone Campaign. And the recruitment campaign is aptly named … “Strike Like Princess Olha”.
Last week, Ukraine’s Ground Forces launched a voluntary recruitment campaign for the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) titled “Women in Mid-Strike: Strike Like Princess Olha,” which aims to recruit women for drone operations while explicitly denying any plans for forced mobilization. The campaign, promoted with public posters and in digital media, highlights women serving in technology-driven roles, such as operating mid-strike unmanned systems at safe distances from the front lines.
Contrary to Russian propaganda to discredit the Ukrainian armed forces and sow social discord, Ukraine steadfastly maintains that female military service remains strictly voluntary and that no legislative changes are underway to conscript women:
Ukrainian Ground Forces launch campaign to recruit women for USF
The project was presented at Ukrinform by the Ukrainian Ground Forces together with the Drone Force Center for Recruitment and Training of Unmanned Systems Specialists.
The large-scale campaign aims to highlight opportunities for women in modern, technology-driven military professions and promote the creation of mixed-gender and all-female crews in unmanned systems units.
The women are going to be needed … to free up more experienced drone operators for work closer to the front lines … to close up gaps and confront the coming massive Russian onslaught on the “Fortress Belt”. Not only that but recent Russian moves in Northern Ukraine(Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv oblasts) portend the likelihood of Russia again opening a front a la February 24th 2022 in that area(again with the connivance of Lukashenko and Belarus) to threaten Kyiv itself. Putin probably hopes to kill two birds with one stone … threaten Kyiv with another invasion while grabbing more Ukrainian territory in the North. Further that Ukraine might thin out and shift its front line defenses in the East to the North thereby giving the 600,000 newly mobilized Russian mobiki a chance for a break through into the “Fortress Belt” and achieve his goal of capturing “all of Donbas”.
But Ukraine is onto Putin’s plans in the North. The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine recently authorized a special border regime in a one-kilometer-wide strip along the state borders with Russia and Belarus. The regime is to be enforced beginning September 10, 2026. It prohibits civilians from entry, movement, residence, and work in the designated zone, with exceptions only for activities related to national defense and border protection. The restrictions are temporary and will remain in effect for the duration of martial law to strengthen security against potential subversive activities and unauthorized access. Recent photos of the areas show that Ukraine has been steadily fortifying its Northern border with pretty much the same defensive systems as in the “Fortress Belt”:
Ukraine has introduced a special border regime in the one-kilometer zone along the border with Russia and Belarus
And it’s not just Ukraine. Other European nations are similarly fortifying their borders with Russia:
The barrier comprises metal mesh, surveillance cameras, lighting, and loudspeakers, along with a dedicated patrol road.
The same border pressures have driven neighboring states to build physical defenses of their own. Lithuania has approved counter-mobility zones and engineering barriers along its frontiers with Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad region, including a 20-meter-wide strip and the restoration of wetlands to slow the movement of heavy military equipment, with the measures phased in through the end of the decade.
0 comments:
Post a Comment