8 hours ago
4
You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load.
Ukraine’s only female combat pilot flies helicopter missions against Russian troops. The military says it wants more women fighting, but sexism remains an obstacle, activists and female soldiers say.
May 18, 2025, 12:01 a.m. ET
The Ukrainian helicopter, returning from a mission firing rockets at Russian troops, swooped in low over a forest of birch trees and touched down in a clearing in a cloud of dust.
The door opened, and the pilot emerged, blinking away the dust with mascaraed eyelashes, her nails manicured a deep burgundy. She was carrying a heavy flight jacket over one arm, and a member of the ground crew rushed over to her to help her with it.
“Let me carry it,” he said, but she waved him off. If I can land a helicopter, her body language suggested, I don’t need help with my jacket.
“Guys always want to show that they’re heroes and protect you,” the pilot, a senior lieutenant named Kateryna, said in an interview later. “But I didn’t come here to be a girl. At some point, our army will get it.”
Ukraine, now in the fourth year of all-out war with Russia, is facing an urgent need for more soldiers, and after years of reluctance is stepping up efforts to get more women to serve.
The military has started recruitment campaigns for women and gender equality training courses for commanders as part of that effort. Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, the number of women in the armed forces has increased by 20 percent, according to the Ministry of Defense.
