As the world celebrated International Women’s Day on Tuesday, women have been at the forefront shouldering Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion of their country.
A video of Ukrainian women soldiers issuing a warning of ‘surrender before it’s too late’ to Russian troops has been shared multiple times across social media.
The video, published via Telegram channel of Spravdi, Center for Strategic Communications, Ukraine, shows women soldiers displaying unflinching courage as they vow to protect their nation.
According to the translation provided in the video, the woman says, “We are women of Ukraine. We have blessed our men to protect our land. We have already taken our children to safety. The genetic fund of our nation is reliably protected. We join the men and the Ukrainian army. We will destroy the enemy on every inch of Ukrainian land in every city, every village, forest and field. For every child, woman, old man, ruined house, street, even barn, we will shoot you like rabid dogs. Glory to Ukraine! Death to enemies!”
The Associated Press reported that on International Women’s Day, the global celebration of women, many fleeing Ukraine felt only the stress of finding a new life for their children as husbands, brothers and fathers stayed behind to defend their country from Russia’s invasion.
The number of refugees reached 2 million on Tuesday, according to the United Nations, the fastest exodus Europe has seen since World War II. One million were children, UNICEF spokesman James Elder tweeted, calling it “a dark historical first.” Most others were women.
At the beginning of 2021, there were around 57,000 women in Ukraine’s armed forces, comprising 22.8 percent of the total, according to the ministry of defence.
This figure is far higher than those of its neighbors Poland (7.5 percent) and Russia (4 percent), as well as the United States (16 percent) and Germany (12 percent).
Only a handful of countries that conscript men and women on equal conditions, such as Norway and Sweden, have a comparable or higher level of female representation in their military.
