Ukraine has been at war with its Russian aggressor for more than two years. Ukraine's chief military adviser on gender issues, Oksana Grigorieva, called for the introduction of compulsory military service for women.
Ukraine, like Israel, must be prepared to be repeatedly attacked by its “neighbor” and this means “that we have to train both men and women for war,” she said. There are currently 65,000 women in the Ukrainian armed forces, 40 percent more than in 2021 and all on a voluntary basis. According to a New York Times report, the number of male military personnel has tripled since 2021. The Ukrainian government had already lifted some restrictions on women serving in military service during the course of the war. In January 2024, a woman was said to have been involved in a combat mission in the Gaza Strip for the first time. In recent months there has been repeated discussion about the lack of ammunition in Ukraine, but also about the need to mobilize new armed forces.