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From the Maidan to the Donbas: The Limitations on Choice for Women in Ukraine

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Book cover Gender and Choice after Socialism

Abstract

‘I am normally a pacifist but this is a step I’ve had to take’, explained Mariya Berlins’ka about her decision to join the conflict in eastern Ukraine and become a drone operator. Since she started volunteering for the army, Berlins’ka has become a celebrity in Ukraine. Her daily schedule resembles that of a busy politician: a talk on the legal status of women in the army, an interview for a TV channel, a panel discussion on gender-based violence, another public debate. I first met Berlins’ka in April 2014 in Kyiv, immediately after the Maidan protests. Makeshift tents covered the central streets, paving stones were still upturned following street battles, and people were in a state of shock: no one had expected blood to be shed in Ukraine’s capital in peacetime. Berlins’ka was visibly shaken by what she had experienced. This was before the start of the full-scale conflict in eastern Ukraine, her involvement with the army, and her celebrity status. She could still choose to walk away from the barricades and go back to her old life as a graduate student. She did not.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Mariya Berlins’ka, interviewed by Maxine Boersma, ‘Women at war: the red-nailed volunteers risking their lives on Ukraine’s Donbass frontline’, I News, 15 December 2016, para. 27, https://inews.co.uk/explainers/iq/ukraine-donbass-war-women-military-female-volunteers/, accessed 12 January 2017.

  2. 2.

    Mariya Berlins’ka shared her schedule on her Facebook page on 30 November 2016, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1439695359388986&set=pb.100000456087296.-2207520000.1484246576.&type=3&theater, accessed 12 January 2017. Unless otherwise indicated, all translations from Ukrainian and Russian are mine.

  3. 3.

    The military hostilities in the Donbas, which started in April 2014 and are ongoing at the time of writing, are referred to in everyday speech in Ukraine as a war. The official term used by the Ukrainian authorities and much of the media was anti-terrorist operation (ATO) until October 2017, when it was replaced by ‘security operations for the reestablishment of sovereignty and the territorial integrity of the country’. For further discussion see ‘Nataliya Lebid’, ‘Vzhe ne ATO, ale shche ne viina’, Ukrayina Moloda, 6 October 2017, http://www.umoloda.kiev.ua/number/3221/180/116472/, accessed 29 October 2017.

  4. 4.

    See Mariya Berlins’ka, Tamara Martsenyuk, Anna Kvit, and Ganna Grytsenko, ‘Nevydymyi batal’ion’: uchast’ zhinok u viis’kovykh diiakh v ATO (Ukr. http://www.uwf.org.ua/project_activities/invisible_batallion), ‘Invisible Battalion’: Women’s Participation in ATO Military Operations (Eng. http://www.uwf.org.ua/en/project_activities/invisible_batallion), (Kyiv: Ukrainian Women’s Fund, 2016), accessed 3 February 2017. I will be referring to both versions of the report.

  5. 5.

    See Olga Zelinska, ‘Who Were the Protestors and What Did They Want? Contentious Politics of Local Maidans across Ukraine, 2013–2014’, Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization 23, no. 4 (2015), pp. 379–400 (398).

  6. 6.

    See ‘Ukraine police smash pro-Europe protest, opposition to call strike’, Reuters, 30 November 2013, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-protest-idUSBRE9AT01Q20131130, accessed 19 January 2017.

  7. 7.

    Volodymyr Paniotto, ‘Yevromaidan: profil’ povstannya’, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology Review 7 (2014), pp. 5–7 (7).

  8. 8.

    See ‘Vichna pam”yat’ zahyblym pravookhorontsyam’, Natsional’na Politsiya, 3 March 2014, https://www.npu.gov.ua/uk/publish/article/989593, accessed 7 February 2017.

  9. 9.

    Sich refers to the fortification occupied by the Cossacks in the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. See Olesya Khromeychuk, ‘Negotiating Protest Spaces on the Maidan: A Gender Perspective’, Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society 2, no. 1 (2016), pp. 9–47 (18–19).

  10. 10.

    Nazarii Polishchuk, ‘Oblychchya Yevromaidanu’, 13 December 2013, Table 4. The data is taken from a survey conducted by Fond ‘Demokratychni initsiatyvy’ on 7–8 December 2013, http://infolight.org.ua/content/oblichchya-ievromaydanu-socialniy-portret-uchasnikiv-protestiv, accessed 19 January 2017.

  11. 11.

    Anastasiya Ryabchuk, ‘Right Revolution? Hopes and Perils of the Euromaidan Protests in Ukraine’, Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe 22, no. 1 (2014), pp. 127–134 (128). Samooborona Maidanu consisted of 42 self-defence units, sotnyas; only one of them, an all-female unit, had a female leader. Some units accepted both men and women, but most preferred to keep their membership all-male.

  12. 12.

    Polishchuk, ‘Oblychchya Yevromaidanu’, table 9.

  13. 13.

    ‘Vid Maidanu-taboru do maidanu-sichi: shcho zminylosya?’, Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, 6 February 2014, http://www.kiis.com.ua/?lang=ukr&cat=reports&id=226&page=1, accessed 19 January 2017.

  14. 14.

    An information poster produced by the 16th unit of the self-defence structure stated that men were wanted for ‘the night guard on the barricades’, while women were needed ‘to make tea and food for the guards’. See Image 2, in Olesya Khromeychuk, ‘Gender i natsionalizm na Maidani’, Historians.in.ua , 27 October 2015, http://historians.in.ua/index.php/en/dyskusiya/1673-olesia-khromeichuk-gender-i-natsionalizm-na-maidani-a, accessed 7 February 2017. See also Olesya Khromeychuk, ‘Gender and Nationalism on the Maidan’, in David R. Marples and Frederick V. Mills (eds) Ukraine’s Euromaidan: Analyses of a Civil Revolution (Stuttgart: Ibidem, 2015), pp. 123–145 (124); Khromeychuk, ‘Negotiating Protest Spaces’; Sarah D. Phillips, ‘The Women’s Squad in Ukraine’s Protests: Feminism, Nationalism and Militarism on the Maidan’, American Ethnologist 41, no. 3 (2014), pp. 414–426; Olga Onuch and Tamara Martsenyuk, ‘Mothers and Daughters of the Maidan: Gender, Repertoires of Violence, and the Division of Labour in Ukrainian Protests’, Social, Health, and Communication Studies Journal. Contemporary Ukraine: A case of Euromaidan 1, no. 1 (2014), pp. 105–26.

  15. 15.

    See Dar”ia [Dariya] Popova, ‘“Dyvanna sotnya”: pryvileyi, yaki ne vyishlo rozdilyty’, Ya 3, no. 39 (2015), pp. 14–15; Tamara Martsenyuk, ‘Hender i natsiya v ukrayins’komu suspil’stvi: maskulinnosti ta Yevromaidan 2013–2014′, Ya 1, no. 37, 2015, pp. 4–9.

  16. 16.

    In ‘Aktyvisty Maidanu – kyyanam: “Spravzhni choloviky mayut’ buty tut!”’, Ukrayins’ka Pravda, 26 January 2014, http://www.pravda.com.ua/photo-video/2014/01/26/7011378/, accessed 24 January 2017.

  17. 17.

    Dariya Popova, ‘Seksyzm na maidani’, Spil’ne, 3 October 2014, para. 4, http://commons.com.ua/seksizm-na-majdani/, accessed 22 January 2017.

  18. 18.

    Interviewee Kateryna Chepura, a theatre director and an activist of the 16th unit of the self-defence, 10 April 2014, Kyiv.

  19. 19.

    It is common to find descriptions of protesters engaging in tasks such as fortification of the barricades where the participation of women is perceived as exceptional: ‘Even girls, women and elderly men were engaged in performing these tasks’. Oleksandr Vivcharyk, ‘Khto naspravdi nese v Ukrayinu fashyzm, abo dva dni na barykadakh’, Natsional’na Spilka Zhurnalistiv Ukrayiny, 29 January 2014, para. 22, http://www.nsju.org/article/2513, accessed 13 February 2017.

  20. 20.

    Interviewee Anna Kovalenko, radio journalist, theatre critic, and leader of 39th unit of the self-defence, 8 April 2014, Kyiv. For further discussion of the 39th unit, see Khromeychuk, ‘Gender and Nationalism’.

  21. 21.

    Interviewee Iryna Ovchar, a student of Political Science, 5 August 2015, London.

  22. 22.

    Interviewee Ruslana Panukhnyk, ‘No Borders’ project worker at the Social Action Centre and an activist of the Ol’ha Kobylyans’ka all-female unit, 8 April 2014, Kyiv.

  23. 23.

    Popova, ‘Seksyzm na maidani’, para. 23. For a detailed discussion of gender and nationalism, see Khromeychuk ‘Gender and Nationalism’.

  24. 24.

    Interviewee Panukhnyk. See ‘Anons. Vidkryto kontaktnyi punkt pravovoyi dopomohy’, Pravovyi Prostir, 10 February 2014, http://legalspace.org/ua/novini/item/1181-anons-vidkryto-kontaktnyi-punkt-pravovoi-dopomohy, accessed 24 January 2017.

  25. 25.

    Although they adopted the widespread militaristic designation sotnya—a self-defence unit—the group did not embrace militaristic rhetoric. See Anastasiya Mel’nychenko, ‘Navishcho Ukrayini Zhinocha Sotnya?’, Heinrich Böll Stiftung, 24 March 2014, http://ua.boell.org/uk/2014/03/25/navishcho-ukrayini-zhinocha- sotnya, accessed 24 January 2017; Iryna Vyrtosu, ‘Ne buterbrodom yedynym, abo Navishcho Maidanu “Zhinocha sotnya”’, Ukrayins’ka Pravda, 5 February 2014, http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2014/02/5/151445/, accessed 23 January 2017. Ol’ha Kobylyans’ka (1863–1942) was a Ukrainian modernist feminist writer.

  26. 26.

    For a further discussion, see Khromeychuk, ‘Negotiating Protest Spaces’.

  27. 27.

    Mariya Berlins’ka, ‘Pravo zhinky na Maidan’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9du79huJxo (accessed 10 September 2015).

  28. 28.

    Berlins’ka, ‘Pravo zhinky na Maidan’.

  29. 29.

    Mariya Dmytriyeva, ‘Bez zhinok Maidan by ne vidbuvsya’, in Iryna Vyrtosu (ed), Maidan. Zhinocha sprava (Kyiv: Ukrains’kyi zhinochyi fond, 2014), p. 17, http://www.uwf.kiev.ua/files/20140604104737967428m aydan_web.pdf, accessed 23 January 2017.

  30. 30.

    Dmytriyeva, ‘Bez zhinok Maidan by ne vidbuvsya’.

  31. 31.

    See ‘Hender. Na Chasi’, Ia 1, no. 37 (2015), http://krona.org.ua/assets/files/journal/Gendernyi-zhurnal-Ya-37-2015.pdf, accessed 13 February 2017.

  32. 32.

    See ‘Marsh vos’moho bereznya: feminizm zavzhdy na chasi!’, Nihilist, 7 March 2015, paras. 2–5, http://www.nihilist.li/2015/03/07/marsh-vos-mogo-bereznya-feminizm-zavzhdi-na-chasi/, accessed 27 January 2017.

  33. 33.

    See ‘Poshyrenist’ nasyl’stva shchodo divchat ta zhinok’, Fond Narodonaselennya OON, (2014), http://www.unfpa.org.ua/files/articles/4/70/GBV%20Infographics%20UKR.pdf, accessed 29 January 2017.

  34. 34.

    ‘Gender-based Violence in the Conflict-Affected Regions of Ukraine. Analytical Report’, Ukrainian Centre for Social Reforms, 2015, 61, http://www.unfpa.org.ua/files/articles/6/55/GBV%20Prevalence%20Survey_ENG.pdf, accessed 27 January 2017. See also ‘Unspoken Pain. Gender-based violence in the conflict zone of eastern Ukraine’, Eastern-Ukrainian Center for Civic Initiatives, (Warsaw: Justice for Peace in Donbas. Coalition of Human Rights Organizations, 2017), https://jfp.org.ua/system/reports/files/92/en/Unspoken-Pain-web.pdf, accessed 6 February 2017.

  35. 35.

    ‘Gender-based Violence’.

  36. 36.

    Danielle Johnson, ‘As Ukraine’s women speak up on sexual violence, we must not ignore those affected by conflict’, Open Democracy, 25 July 2016, https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/danielle-johnson/speaking-on-sexual-violence, accessed 29 January 2017.

  37. 37.

    See Valeriya Shyrokova, ‘Dev”yat’ zapytan’ pro domashnye nasyl’stvo i Stambul’s’ku konventsiyu v Ukrayini’, Povaha, 24 October 2017, http://povaha.org.ua/dev-yat-zapytan-pro-domashnje-nasylstvo-i-stambulsku-konventsiyu-v-ukrajini/, accessed 29 October 2017.

  38. 38.

    ‘Vitayemo zakhysnykiv i zakhysnyts’ zi svyatom! Ukrayintsi – narod-viis’ko’, Ukrayins’kyi Instytut Natsional’noyi Pam”yati, 2015, para. 1, http://www.memory.gov.ua/news/vitaemo-zakhisnikiv-i-zakhisnits-zi-svyatom-ukraintsi-narod-viisko, accessed 30 January 2017.

  39. 39.

    See Olesya Khromeychuk, ‘What place for women in Ukraine’s memory politics?’, Open Democracy Russia, 10 October 2016, https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/olesya-khromeychuk/what-place-for-women-in-ukraine-s-memory-politics, accessed 30 January 2017.

  40. 40.

    See ‘Vystup z nahody Dnya zakhysnyka Ukrayiny ta prysyahy litseyistamy Kyyivs’koho viis’kovoho litseyu im. Ivana Bohuna’, 14 October 2016, https://medium.com/@petroporoshenko/виступ-з-нагоди-дня-захисника-україни-та-присяги-ліцеїстами-київського-військового-ліцею-ім-12327b99d74d#.ua9h3zqef, accessed 30 January 2017; Petro Poroshenko’s twitter account, https://twitter.com/poroshenko/status/786827054759211008, accessed 30 January 2017.

  41. 41.

    This chapter focuses on women who fought on the side of the Ukrainian state and will not discuss those who fought for the so-called Donets’k and Luhans’k People’s Republics or the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

  42. 42.

    Conscription was supposed to end in 2013 but resumed because of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. See ‘Ukrainian Parliament Recommends Resumption of Mandatory Conscription’, Radio Free Europe. Radio Liberty, 17 April 2014, http://www.rferl.org/a/ukrainian-parliament-recommends-resumption-of-mandatory-conscription/25352661.html, accessed 13 February 2017. See also ‘Poroshenko nazvav kil’kist’ mobilizovanykh protyahom shesty cherh mobilizatsiyi’, Unian, 24 August 2015, http://www.unian.ua/war/1114740-poroshenko-nazvav-kilkist-mobilizovanih-protyagom-shesti-cherg-mobilizatsiji.html, accessed 26 January 2017.

  43. 43.

    ‘Ukhylyvsya vid mobilizatsiyi – vidpovidai po zakonu’, Ministrerstvo oborony Ukrayiny, http://www.mil.gov.ua/ministry/aktualno/do-uvagi-vijskovosluzhbovcziv/uhilivsya-vid-mobilizaczii-vidpovidaj-po-zakonu.html, accessed 26 January 2017.

  44. 44.

    See ‘Zakon Ukrayiny Pro viis’kovyi obovyazok i viis’kovu sluzhbu’, http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/2232-12, accessed 26 January 2017; ‘Perelik spetsial’nostei, po oderzhanni yakykh prydatni do viis’kovoyi sluzhby zhinky perebuvayut’ na viis’kovomu obliku’, 14 October 1994, http://zakon4.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/711-94-п, accessed 26 January 2017.

  45. 45.

    Out of 42 women interviewed by the researchers, only two had been mobilised; the others volunteered to serve at the frontline. See Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Invisible Battalion’, 23.

  46. 46.

    ‘U Zbroinykh Sylakh Ukrayiny prokhodyat’ viis’kovu sluzhbu i pratsyuyut’ 55629 zhinok’, Ukrainian Military Pages, 22 November 2017, http://www.ukrmilitary.com/2017/11/female-soldiers.html, accessed 9 January 2017; ‘Chysel’nist’ ukrayins’koyi armiyi nablyzhayet’sya do “zakonodavchoho limitu”’, Ukrinform, 3 October 2017, https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-society/2317217-ciselnist-ukrainskoi-armii-nablizaetsa-do-zakonodavcogo-limitu.html, accessed 9 January 2018; ‘V armiyi maye sluzhyty stil’ky zhinok, skil’ky bazhaye, - ministr oborony Ukrayiny’, Povaha. Kampaniia proty seksyzmu, 24 November 2017, http://povaha.org.ua/v-armiji-maje-sluzhyty-stilky-zhinok-skilky-bazhaje-ministr-oborony-ukrajiny/, accessed 9 January 2018; ‘V ZSU pochaly rozrobku bilyzny dlya viis’kovykh-zhinok’, TSN, 28 September 2017, https://tsn.ua/ukrayina/u-zsu-pochali-rozrobku-bilizni-dlya-viyskovih-zhinok-999855.html, accessed 9 January 2018.

  47. 47.

    Official response of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine to author’s information request, 9 October 2017, author’s private archive.

  48. 48.

    See Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Grytsenko, Kvit, ‘Invisible Battalion’, 14.

  49. 49.

    Territorial Defence Battalion ‘Aidar’ was formed in May 2014 as a volunteer military detachment. See ‘Dobrovol’chi batal’iony: vid vynyknennya do pidporyadkuvannya ZSU chy Natshvardiyi’, Tyzhden’, 26 March 2015, http://m.tyzhden.ua/news/132877, accessed 1 February 2017. Unlike the units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces , volunteer battalions were more flexible in their recruitment practices and thus more likely to accept women into their ranks.

  50. 50.

    See Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Nevydymyi batal’ion’.

  51. 51.

    Yurii Tymoshchuk, ‘26-richna “aidarivka” Mariya Berlins’ka’, Vikna, 24 October 2014, http://vikna.if.ua/news/category/ua/2014/10/24/23995/view, accessed 26 January 2017.

  52. 52.

    Berlins’ka in Svitlana Spasibina, ‘“Komandyr prosyv zanochuvaty z nym v odnomu lizhku. Ya poslala ioho”. Yak zhinky na viini stayut’ “svoyimy”’, InfoMIST, 13 July 2016, para. 5, http://infomist.ck.ua/komandyr-prosyv-zanochuvaty-z-nym-v-odnomu-lizhku-ya-poslala-jogo-yak-zhinky-na-vijni-stayut-svoyimy/, accessed 26 January 2017.

  53. 53.

    Interviewee Mariya Berlins’ka, 9 June 2016, Kyiv. The quotation ‘body and soul we’ll lay down for our freedom’ is from the Ukrainian national anthem which was sung frequently by protesters on the Maidan.

  54. 54.

    See Halyna Tsyhanenko, ‘“Ochi, pokryti popelom”: pochuttya provyny na viini’, BBC Ukrainian, 30 October 2015, http://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/blogs/2015/10/151019_psychologist_blog_ko, accessed 31 January 2017; Marichka Paplauskaite, ‘Zvorotnii bik volonterstva. Yak ne vtratyty vlasnoho zhyttya, dopomahayuchy inshym’, Ukrayins’ka Pravda, 5 September 2016, http://life.pravda.com.ua/society/2016/09/5/217601/view_print/, accessed 30 January 2017.

  55. 55.

    See Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Nevydymyi batal’ion’.

  56. 56.

    Female Respondent 1 in Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Nevydymyi Batal’ion’, 25.

  57. 57.

    Female Respondent 1.

  58. 58.

    Interviewee Yuliya Tolopa, 9 June 2016, Kyiv.

  59. 59.

    Yuliya Tolopa in ‘My znaishly rosiis’ku BMP, i ya stala komandyrom – rosiyanka z “Aidaru”’, Hromads’ke Radio, 15 October 2015, https://hromadskeradio.org/en/programs/hromadska-hvylya/my-znayshly-rosiysku-bmp-i-ya-stala-komandyrom-rosiyanka-z-aydaru, accessed 2 February 2017.

  60. 60.

    Interviewee Tolopa.

  61. 61.

    The full title of the list is ‘Interim list of staff positions for privates, sergeants, sergeants-major, including those for which the appointment of female military personnel is permitted, and the corresponding ranks and wage categories’. See Decree No. 337, Ministerstvo Oborony Ukrayiny, 27 May 2014, http://zakon3.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/z0600-14#n16, accessed 30 January 2017.

  62. 62.

    This article is separate from the sociological study quoted elsewhere in the chapter, although it relies on the same primary material. See Tamara Martsenyuk, Ganna Grytsenko, Anna Kvit, ‘The “Invisible Battalion”: Women in ATO Military Operations in Ukraine’, Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal 2 (2016), pp. 171–187, 176–177. See also, ‘Law of Ukraine “On Principles of Prevention and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine”. Legal Analysis’, Equal Rights Trust (2013), http://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/ERT%20Legal%20Analysis%20of%20Anti-Discrimination%20Legislation%20in%20Ukraine%20(English).pdf, accessed 2 February 2017. In December 2017, the Ukrainian Health Ministry abolished its Decree No. 256 which banned women from being employed in 450 professions. This could potentially have an impact on the list of available positions for women in the armed forces. See ‘Ukraine’s Health Ministry opens up previously banned 450 professions for women’, Euromaidan Press, 21 December 2017, http://euromaidanpress.com/2017/12/21/ukraines-health-ministry-lifts-restrictions-on-womens-employment-in-450-professions/, accessed 12 February 2018.

  63. 63.

    See Constitution of Ukraine, http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/254к/96-вр, accessed 27 February 2017.

  64. 64.

    See Decree No. 337.

  65. 65.

    Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Invisible Battalion’, p. 16.

  66. 66.

    Emphasis is mine. See Yevheniya Shydlovs’ka, ‘P″yat’ istorii pro Nadiyu Savchenko’, BBC Ukrainian, 17 April 2015, http://www.bbc.com/ukrainian/entertainment/2015/04/150306_savchenko_impressions_she, accessed 6 February 2017. See also Maxine Boersma, ‘How Nadiya Savchenko became Ukraine’s Joan of Arc’, New Statesman, 21 November 2016, http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/11/how-nadiya-savchenko-became-ukraines-joan-arc, accessed 6 February 2017.

  67. 67.

    See ‘Kreml’ ne darma boyit’sya Savchenko – Atlantic Council’, Dzerkalo Tyzhnya, 18 March 2016, http://dt.ua/WORLD/kreml-ne-darma-boyitsya-savchenko-atlantic-council-202864_.html, accessed 6 February 2017.

  68. 68.

    Anton Herashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister in ‘Stranu nado sshyvat’’, Korrespondent.net , 17 August 2016, http://korrespondent.net/ukraine/politics/3732871-stranu-nado-sshyvat-yntervui-s-antonom-heraschenko, accessed 7 February 2017.

  69. 69.

    See Tamara Martsenyuk interviewed by Iryna Slavins’ka in ‘Mizohiniya ta henderni stereotypy, abo She for She’, Hromads’ke Radio, 30 September 2016, https://hromadskeradio.org/programs/antena/mizoginiya-ta-genderni-stereotypy-abo-she-for-she, accessed 6 February 2017.

  70. 70.

    Nadiya Savchenko, Syl’ne im”ya Nadiya! (Kyiv: ‘Yustinian’, 2016), pp. 170–186.

  71. 71.

    Savchenko, Syl’ne im”ya Nadiya, p. 170.

  72. 72.

    Savchenko, Syl’ne im”ya Nadiya, p. 171.

  73. 73.

    See Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit and Grytsenko, ‘Invisible Battalion’, 22.

  74. 74.

    Viktoriya Dvorets’ka in Oksana Khudoyar, ‘“Naryad na kukhni – tse naivazhche. To ne zhinocha robota”’, Gazeta.ua, 27 March 2015, para. 6, http://gazeta.ua/articles/ukraine-newspaper/_naryad-na-kuhni-ce-najvazhche-to-ne-zhinocha-robota/617281?mobile=true, accessed 2 February 2017.

  75. 75.

    Dvorets’ka interviewed by Tamara Balayeva, ‘14 mesyatsev schast’ya. Istoriya odnoi zhenshchiny na voine’, Focus, 29 October 2015, para. 14, https://focus.ua/society/339188/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=mail, accessed 8 February 2017.

  76. 76.

    See ‘“Sovok” v ukrainskoi armii: razvedchitsy i piloty vypolnyayut boevye zadaniya za zarplatu… banshchits’, Face News, 30 March 2015, https://www.facenews.ua/articles/2015/267762/?hc_location=ufi, accessed 2 February 2017. See also ‘Viktoriya, “Dyka”, Batal’ion “Aidar”, ofitser ZSU’, Volonters’kyi foto proekt ‘Yakby ne viina’, 8 March 2016, https://www.facebook.com/ifnotwar/posts/972287719530611, accessed 2 February 2017.

  77. 77.

    Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Invisible Battalion’, p. 25.

  78. 78.

    Berlins’ka, Martsenyuk, Kvit, and Grytsenko, ‘Invisible Battalion’, p. 24.

  79. 79.

    Martsenyuk, Grytsenko, Kvit, ‘The “Invisible Battalion”’, p. 179.

  80. 80.

    See Decree No. 337.

  81. 81.

    Interviewee Berlins’ka, 9 June 2016.

  82. 82.

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    Volonters’kyi foto proekt ‘Yakby ne viina’, 8 March 2016, https://www.facebook.com/ifnotwar/photos/a.949136258512424.1073741829.948611305231586/972142836211766/?type=3&theater, accessed 7 February 2017. See also ‘Zhinochi oblychchya revolyutsiyi’, aired on 1+1 channel in May 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzgEE8i360g, accessed 7 February 2017.

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  1. School of History, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

    Olesya Khromeychuk

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  1. School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Lynne Attwood

  2. School of Languages and Social Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Elisabeth Schimpfössl

  3. University College for Interdisciplinary Learning, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Marina Yusupova

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Khromeychuk, O. (2018). From the Maidan to the Donbas: The Limitations on Choice for Women in Ukraine. In: Attwood, L., Schimpfössl, E., Yusupova, M. (eds) Gender and Choice after Socialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73661-7_3

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