Kiev, Ukraine (AP) — When the air raid siren bellows In the middle of the night the gunwomen come to work.
Less than two months after joining the mobile air defense unit, 27-year-old Angelina had mastered the technique down to a tee: she was wearing combat fatigues and had an anti-aircraft gun in place. She was driving a pickup truck and singing along to a Ukrainian song about rebellion.
The rest unfolded in seconds: Under a tree-lined position near Kiev’s Bucha suburb, she and her unit of five women mounted the gun, checked the salvo and waited. The chirping of crickets filled the silence until the Shahed drone launched by Russia was shot down — on this August night, by a nearby unit — thus eliminating another threat to daily life in Ukraine.
Shooting down a drone brings her joy. “It’s just an adrenaline rush,” said Angelina, who like other women in the unit spoke to The Associated Press on the condition that only their first names or nicknames be used, in accordance with military policy.
Women are increasingly joining volunteer mobile units responsible for shooting down Russian drones that terrorize Ukrainian citizens and energy infrastructure as more men are sent east to the front lines.
Although women make up only a small portion of the country’s armed forces, their service is vital. With tens of thousands of men reportedly recruited every monthWomen have emerged as crucial operations, from coal mines to territorial defense forces, accepted them to fill traditionally male roles.
At least 70 women have been recruited to the Bucha Defense Force in recent months for anti-drone operations, the area’s territorial defense commander, Col. Andrii Velarty, said. It is part of a nationwide campaign to attract part-time female volunteers to fill the ranks of local defense units.
The women come from all walks of life – from housewives to doctors like Angelina – and call themselves the “Witches of Bucha,” a nod to their role in monitoring the night sky for Russian drones.
Some were motivated to volunteer by the Russian massacre of hundreds of Bucha residents during the month-long occupation of the Kiev suburb by Russian forces shortly after the invasion in February 2022. Bodies of men, women and children were left on the streets, in homes and in mass graves.
“We were here and saw these horrors,” said Angelina, who treated wounded residents, including children, during the Russian occupation.
When she and her friend Olena, who is also a doctor, saw a sign on the highway in June calling for female recruits, “we didn’t hesitate for a moment,” she says.
“We called and were told right away, ‘Yes, come tomorrow,’” she said. “There is work we can do here.”
A grueling workout
During a training session deep in the Bucha Forest this month, female recruits ranging in age from 27 to 51 were tested on how quickly they could assemble and disassemble rifles. “I have eighth-graders who can do this better,” their instructor shouted.
The recruits were taught about all sorts of weapons and mines, tactics and how to detect Russian infiltrators. Their skills were geared to a war where the methods of their enemies were constantly changing.
“We don’t train less than men,” says Lidiia, who joined a month ago.
Lidiia, a 34-year-old saleswoman with four children, said her main motivation was to do her part to protect her family. Her children have looked at her differently since she started wearing military fatigues, she said.
“My youngest son always asks, ‘Mom, do you carry a gun?’ I say, ‘Yes.’ He asks, ‘Do you shoot?’ I say, ‘Of course I do.’”
“I’ve always been the best for them, but now I’m the best in a slightly different way,” she said.
On July 31, she was in service when Russia launched 89 Shahed drones, all of which were destroyed. Lidia was an assistant machine gunner that night.
“We got ready, we went to the call, we found out that there were many targets all over Ukraine,” she said. “We had night vision equipment, so it was easy to spot the target.”
What did she feel when her unit shot down three of the drones? “Joy and some foul language,” Olena said.
After shooting down drones, the day’s work begins
As the sun rose, Angelina and Olena took off their heavy combat gear and went home to put on surgical scrubs. Another shift, this time in the intensive care unit of the hospital where they work, was about to begin.
By midnight, they would be back at the tree line, waiting for incoming Russian drones. “Today I slept for two hours and forty minutes,” Olena said.
For both women there is no escape from the war.
Their boyfriends are soldiers and Angelina, an anesthetist, met her boyfriend in the hospital where he was recovering from a war wound to his foot.
Seeing the number of wounded Ukrainian soldiers was one of the reasons she decided to volunteer.
“To bring our victory closer. If we can do something to help, why not?” she said.
Angelina’s boyfriend worries every time she’s on duty and the air raid sirens go off. He texts her, “Be careful,” and when it’s over, “Write to me” — even though it’s much scarier on the front lines, she said.
‘We are no longer women, we are soldiers’
Russian drone strikes are usually more intense at night, but daytime attacks are just as deadly. The drone unit spends entire nights driving back and forth from their base in the forest to their positions. Sometimes they stand there for hours, waiting to fire.
“There’s nothing easy about it. To shoot it, you have to train constantly,” Angelina said. “I have to train all the time, also on simulators.”
Their platoon commander, a confident woman with long braided hair who goes by the call sign Calypso, conducts training every Sunday in shooting, assault techniques and combat medicine.
There is no difference between the male and female volunteers, she said.
“From the moment we come to serve, sign a contract, we are no longer women, we are soldiers,” she said. “We have to do our job, and men understand that too. We don’t come here to sit around and cook borscht or something.”
“I feel like the girls and I would shoot these Shaheds with our bare hands, with a stick, if we had to – anything to keep them from landing on our children, friends and family.”
The women in the mobile fire units are on duty every two or three days. They work in groups of five, with a machine gunner, assistant, fire support, a driver and a commander.
“Of course war is war, but no one has canceled femininity,” Calypso said. “It doesn’t matter if you hit a Shahed with painted eyes or not, the work still goes on. And not everyone has a manicure.”
As more women are trained to join the Territorial Defense Forces, Ukrainian airspace becomes safer, Angelina said.
“This means that I can at least make a small contribution to ensuring that my mother sleeps peacefully, that my brothers and sisters go to school peacefully and that they can meet their friends peacefully,” she said.
“So that my godchildren can also grow up under a relatively peaceful sky.”
