"Maryna Mytsiuk spends her free time at a shooting range outside Kyiv, hyper-focused on hitting her targets. She's got to practice. She's waiting for a call that, any day, will send her to war. "Of course, I'd like to be in a combat position," said Mytsiuk, a 27-year-old folklore scholar who speaks Japanese and works at a nonprofit. "With my build and height, I'm not a natural fit for that so I'm training very hard.""
"She wanted to sign up, too, but was told she would be best off in the kitchen, she said, "where I could make dumplings." Mytsiuk, however, plowed ahead. She enrolled at a military university for a second degree, graduating this summer. She looked into several brigades and applied to those with special forces units. She had difficult conversations with her mother and her boyfriend, a soldier. Both strongly oppose her decision."
Maryna Mytsiuk trains at a shooting range outside Kyiv, focusing on marksmanship while awaiting a call that could send her to war. She aims for a combat role despite physical constraints and family opposition. Ukraine is seeing a rise in women volunteering for the military as the full-scale Russian invasion enters its fourth year and manpower remains limited. Mytsiuk enrolled at a military university for a second degree and targeted brigades with special forces units. Men aged 25 to 60 face possible conscription while women remain exempt and serve as volunteers. Ukraine's military reports more than 70,000 women serving in the armed forces.
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