Ukrainian Female Soldiers

In June 2016, Ukrainian women were granted the right to serve in combat positions in the Ukrainian Military. Previously, women were barred from serving on the front line as part of the armed service. However, despite these restrictions, women consistently fought on the front lines during the Maidan Revolution in 2014 without government authority. Also known as the Revolution of Dignity, these deadly large scale protests resulted in the overthrow of the former Ukrainian government which had increasingly close ties to Russia. Ukrainian women risked their lives as volunteers, sometimes claiming to be medics to serve in roles such as snipers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, as of February 2022, 32,000 women serve in the Ukrainian Military, while many more are part of political volunteer battalion groups such as Right Sector.

Following this announcement in 2016, photographer Sarah Blesener traveled to Ukraine to photograph some of these female fighters.