Just eleven years ago women were banned from combat positions in the Ukrainian army. Today they serve in drone crews and support roles in a force that has rapidly adapted and now defines warfare ruled by unmanned systems. Is there a lesson for Europe?<\/p>\n
In the fifth year of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, drone-related roles have become the most popular specialisation among volunteers joining Ukraine\u2019s Defence Forces. According to the 1st Recruitment Centre of the Ground Forces, roughly one-third of candidates in early 2026 chose positions as drone pilots or operators, with the latter being particularly popular among female recruits.<\/p>\n
Having been a combat medic myself, I spoke with my female colleagues from Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces who took up drones and joined the country\u2019s fight for survival against Russia.<\/p>\n
\u2018Housewives\u2019 who can teach a lesson to NATO <\/b><\/p>\n
Despite the words<\/a> of Rheinmetall\u2019s chief executive, who sparked controversy recently by dismissing Ukraine\u2019s drone makers as \u2018Ukrainian housewives with 3\u2011D printers in the kitchen\u2019, Ukrainian women do play a crucial role in the production and innovation of drone technologies. They are also increasingly taking on warfighting roles themselves, piloting and directing the very same drones on the front lines. According to Ukraine\u2019s Ministry of Defence (MoD)<\/a>, more than 80 per cent of enemy targets are now destroyed by drones, including both equipment and enemy personnel. In the words of Lieutenant Tetiana Muravyova, head of the Recruitment and Training Centre for Unmanned Systems Specialists:<\/p>\n \t\t\tNewsletter<\/p>\n Weekly updates with our latest articles and the editorial commentary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just eleven years ago women were banned from combat positions in the Ukrainian army. Today they serve in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":914994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2993,2000,225889,299,5187,71763,131197,225890,657,771,335],"class_list":["post-914993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-defence","tag-eu","tag-eu-defence-industry","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-defence","tag-russian-war","tag-safe-instrument","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-war-in-ukraine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116458791096163863","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/914993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/914994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=914993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=914993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}