You have to love the sight of Terekh, a stunning brunette with high cheekbones, luscious glossy lips and chic, understated garb, speaking to reporters against a backdrop depicting the launch of the pink Flamingo cruise missile she developed with Fire Point.
What’s all the more impressive is how determined Ukraine’s warrior women have had to be to get here, given the entrenched sexism they face. Despite women’s crucial contribution, Ukrainian command positions still remain almost exclusively male.
Of 23 parliamentary committees in Ukraine, women chair just three. The defence and security committee has no women in its leadership. At this year’s influential Bilderberg Conference in Washington DC, Terekh was the only woman present from Ukraine.
I was deeply struck by a recent set of interviews with Ukrainian women who enlisted after Russia’s invasion. Alya, 35, a former dancer, became a surgeon in the army. The bravery she exhibited treating young men blown to bits by shrapnel was in stark contrast to the attitudes of male soldiers she encountered when she first signed up.
She told The Times: “[The men] say: ‘Oh, she’s a beautiful doll — she can’t be smart enough.’ Or else it might be: ‘Oh, she’s come to search for a husband here.’ To which my response was: ‘Listen, I was a ballet dancer, I was spoilt for choice. I didn’t have to join the army to find a husband.’”
Katya, 31, now a drone operator, was an astrophysics student before volunteering in 2015 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in the Donbas. She grew up loving JRR Tolkien’s works, and especially the warrior Aragorn in the The Lord of the Rings.
“I have a strong sense of justice, and my favourite heroes were always fighting dark forces,” she said. “I felt I too should go to war.” She too faced overwhelming harassment in her brigade, which left her afraid for her safety. As she put it, instead of fighting Russia, she was forced into her own little war with rank misogyny. Now she’s in a small unit with her boyfriend, firing drones on Russian targets.
Notably, Katya finds Israel’s conscription of both sexes inspiring. “I would like to see the same in Ukraine, because everyone needs to be protected. I think there should be mobilisation of women, like there is with men. Everyone needs the same kind of training, women included,” she said.
The feminist transformation of Ukraine has some way to go. But through real acts of bravery, commitment and hard graft, women are proving their mettle and winning the kind of trust they ought not to have to win, but which is nonetheless necessary.
The results are already revolutionising Ukrainian society and military prowess. Now the rest of the world has to catch up, before the enemy is at our gates too.