She was the first Ukrainian volunteer fighter to sign a full military contract. Today, she ensures that the women who want to join her in defending Ukraine against Russia do not have a “romantic” idea of war.
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Iryna Sergeyeva was accepted as a reservist in the Ukrainian army in 2017, when her country was fighting against pro-Russian separatists in Donbass, in the east of the country.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, which plunged Ukraine into a struggle for its survival as an independent country, this communication professional has seen the arrival of many young women and men who also wish to take up arms. .
“The first few days, many young women arrived, who wanted to get their hands on a gun to be able to go into battle,” explains this 39-year-old woman, from an underground garage transformed somehow into a training ground.
AFP
The garage reflects the chaos of a city preparing to resist a Russian assault: Along one of the cement walls, expressionless, unshaven men lie on bunk beds.
In another corner, a few older women in civilian clothes are recording the details of new recruits on laptop computers. And a little further, a young man, seated under a pale neon, is having his hair cut by a woman in a hipster hat.
Standing in the middle of it all, Sergeyeva, looking thoughtful, explains her job as head of the organization of volunteer fighters for her Kiev district.
“I understood that a lot of young women had a bit of a romantic idea of it all. Their heroic spirits have awakened,” she said.
“They thought they were going to fight without really understanding how it all works. I had to nod my head, while gently telling them that maybe they weren’t made for that.
After a pause, she adds with a smile, “but maybe that was true for some men too.”
AFP
The advance of Russian forces, now at the gates of Kiev, has given an imminent sense of danger to the streets of the Ukrainian capital, which has already emptied half of its approximately 3.5 million inhabitants, according to its mayor. Vitali Klitschko.
Some outlying neighborhoods have already been partially destroyed by airstrikes.
In the northwest suburbs of the city, the bodies of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians lie abandoned in the streets and parks.
Anti-tank obstacles and sandbags have been placed in cells across the city, now as if divided into segments for future urban guerrilla warfare.
The abrupt transformation of the urban landscape came as a shock to residents who remained in town, such as the budding young artist Natalia Derevyanko.
A trained historian, this 24-year-old woman looks at Iryna Sergeyeva, and shyly defends her decision to take up arms.
“My mom congratulated me for doing that,” she says, on the second day of her training in the garage. “A lot of people are changing jobs because our whole world has been turned upside down.”
Olena Maystrenko, a 22-year-old psychologist, the tip of a gun swinging between her knees, is waiting to find out where she will be deployed.
Reluctant at first, she says she is now prepared for the possibility of having to shoot someone.
“It’s scary – especially in the beginning, when you first pick up a gun and realize you might have to kill someone,” she says.
“But then you get over that. Life is full of nuances. Your fears disappear.
Historically, Ukrainian laws made it difficult for women to enter the professional army.
The laws had to be circumvented to allow Iryna Sergeyeva to follow two years of training and then sign a full contract.
Until the Russian invasion, women made up only about 5% of combat forces and military intelligence officers, she says. But this percentage is now increasing rapidly.
Natalia Kuzmenko, 53, a small business owner, says she joined the garage to cook for the soldiers and make sure everyone had clean uniforms.
“But I signed a contract,” she says. “That means I also have to be ready to pick up a gun and fight.”
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca