When Russia invaded Ukraine final month, Olga Kovalenko and Alona Bushynska didn’t abandon their house nation. They as a substitute volunteered to hitch Ukraine’s navy forces.
- Girls make up about 15% of Ukraine’s military, in accordance with the Ukrainian authorities.
- Why keep? “It is what my Ukrainian blood tells me to do,” one soldier instructed USA TODAY.
- 1000’s of feminine Ukrainian troopers fought in earlier wars, together with World Wars I and II.
Simply final month, Olga Kovalenko moved into her first condo in Kyiv, Ukraine, and obtained engaged to her longtime boyfriend. Now she spends mornings cleansing her rifles and pulling folks out of bomb-stricken houses.
When Ukraine enacted martial legislation and banned males 18 to 60 years outdated from leaving the nation after Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, Kovalenko knew she’d by no means forgive herself if she left her homeland. She known as her mother and father and volunteered to hitch Ukraine’s navy forces.
