乌克兰女医务人员和机枪手人数创历史新高——《华盛顿邮报》

![](/media/202412//1733467424.0933387.png)在前线，乌克兰人 女性通常是第一个 响应者

塞尔希伊科洛丘克

![](/media/202412//1733467424.1015441.jpeg)汉娜 ·库拉瓦是乌克兰军队的一名医生，她治疗了37岁的德玛 一名士兵在佩雷尔兹涅附近的一个村庄的一次俄国袭击中受伤

7月1日， 四面楚歌的利西尚斯克市。 (海蒂 ·莱文为 华盛顿邮报

听

7 min 股份

乌克兰巴克穆特，阿莉娜 ·米哈伊洛娃在地板上睡觉 空仓库，几十名士兵中唯一的女人得到了什么

经过几天的战斗，他们就可以休息了。她被一个人的声音惊醒了

爆炸，在乌克兰前线频繁发生 没有打扰她大多数疲惫的同伴。

“我对这个问题有一种奇怪的感觉， ”米卡哈伊洛娃说

陆军突击连，她已经开始穿衣服了

呼叫：一枚俄罗斯导弹击中了该部队。

米哈伊洛娃迅速赶到现场，发现了一名目瞪口呆的士兵 他肚子里的伤口。他们把他装上了改装后的大众汽车

我要花一小时的车去医院。“每次都是如此

我们撞了，他呻吟了， ”她说。“我意识到一定有弹片

在他的身体里移动，切割器官。”

几周后，她回忆说，病人的血压是

她直线下降，所以她临时做了一个治疗方法，把纱布塞进了里面 伤口，以防止锋利的金属危险地移动和切割

重要的器官。她在战时的转变从来没有比现在更多过

引人注目：从基辅的素食政治学专业到战斗 医生在前线。

“我只是一个喜欢滑雪的女孩， ”她坐在里面说 救护车，周围都是炮声，等待着下一个

在俄罗斯的猛烈袭击下，人员伤亡率飙升

“东线 ”。“但我决定这是我需要去的地方。”

前线部队对抗俄罗斯的控制

整个顿巴斯地区绝大多数都是男性。但当男人是 受伤时，经常会有一个女人从救护车里跳出来。

女性现在占乌克兰军队的22%，比例有所上升 这始于2014年俄罗斯支持的东部战争，但是

自四个月前俄罗斯全面入侵以来，油价已经飙升

致乌克兰妇女老兵的联合创始人卡特琳娜 ·普里马克 行动

“ 自2月份以来，女性注册的人数不断增长

生长， ”她说。

来自乌克兰战争的最新更新

汉娜 ·库拉瓦的女性人数大幅上升

自2016年成为一名医生以来，她一直是一线单位。然后，女性服务

主要在辅助角色，在单位厨房做饭。“现在我看到了女人 司机、机械师、医务人员、机枪手、指挥官。 ”

就在俄罗斯坦克越过边境的几周前，库拉瓦

嫁给了那个开她的救护车的士兵。“这是一个好地方 蜜月，对吗？她问，环看看周围的沙袋

在克拉马托尔斯克的医院里，她带来了很多 伤亡者

她的新婚丈夫试图劝阻她不要加入前线部队

努力，告诉她他是时候冒险了，她是时候确保安全了。 她告诉他，他们换了一下戒指，什么也没有改变。

“我说，‘如果你要坐第一辆公交车，我就去 在第二辆公交车上， ’”她说。

上周五，这对夫妇在美国西部的一个村庄里花了24小时的轮班时间 四面楚歌的利西尚斯克城。他们的救护车停在a汽车的下面

树保护它不被俄罗斯无人机，旁边的休息区看到 上面覆盖着木头和泥土的炸弹掩体。

那里一直很安静，直到乌克兰的高级炮兵炮爆发

烟雾和雷声就在一个村庄的牧场对面。Grad，苏联时代 移动火箭发射器，可发射高达40 122毫米的炮弹

炮弹，然后在俄国人锁定导弹之前加速离开 位置和返回火。

在炮火发生后的几秒钟内，一声呼啸声响起了 巨大的烟雾从毕业生的发射地点滚滚而来。和 另一个和另一个。

“我们解雇了毕业生，然后俄国人进行了报复， ”库拉瓦一边说 穿上了她的喇叭背心。

果然，20分钟后，一群士兵尖叫着停下来 救护车。他们背着一个伤口很浅的士兵

从其中一次爆炸中留下的额头。

“ 回来换换绷带吧， ”她说完就对士兵说 给他打了个补丁。

进入战争中最危险地区的女性说她们会

面对阻力，通常是来自男性伴侣、父母和老年士兵

谁看到自己的妻子、姐妹和女儿 医务人员。

“现在，我基本上是在对父母撒谎

24岁的医生，在巴赫穆特部署。“他们认为我是 在基辅有一个很好的工作机会。”

战争开始时，尼戈扬是德尼普罗一家诊所的一名护士。她有 2016年成为了一名志愿医生，并报名参加了陆军医疗中心

部队立即。

但四个月后，她仍然担心这会让她太难过

父亲，谁有心脏病，知道她已经交换了不育

一个私人诊所的平静——“一切都是白色的；一切都是 安静 ”——在大炮炮后数到8点

在她向下一个病人冲刺之前进行罢工。

这个转变对她来说也很艰难。她的第一个战场上的伤员，是一名士兵

被一名狙击手击中，死在救护车里。她的新生活的紧急现实 她说，工作对她很沉重。她在第二次打电话时更加坚强了

机枪手被弹片击中。

“我们救了他， ”她说。“这个部队里的另一个人，a

兽医，帮助我。”

随后的几十个电话教会了尼戈扬，那些找不到尸体的人

盔甲足够小，足够适合她，流露出自信 体型更大、更老、更久经沙场的士兵。

在通往乌克兰前线的路上，乡村的节奏被战争所颠覆

“如果我必须严格，我可以， ”她说，回忆起一名受伤的士兵

当他要求她不要为了谦虚而脱掉他的裤子时，她拒绝了

围在一个女人的周围。“让我放松一下，以确定我是什么 做

在陆军医疗队服役13年的Irina ·普卡斯说，她已经做到了

磨练了产妇护理和战斗信誉，更有效

给那些通常比她成年的儿子年轻的士兵。

她的炮兵部队几周前遭到了俄国人的猛烈炮击。

在治疗了伤者并确保了死者的安全后，她被要求这样做 帮助一群非常害怕得拒绝起飞的士兵

他们的背心和头盔，甚至是在他们被疏散到安全地带之后。

48岁的普卡斯说： “作为一名母亲和一名军人，我试图让他们放松一下。 ”它 帮助我是女人，也可以告诉她们我是

我自己也很多次都遭到了严重的炮击。”

站在前线的生活意味着在战争生活和个人生活之间的切换

生活在最近的一个下午，两名医护人员打电话到前线 她被赶出斯洛维扬斯克的一家医院和一个朋友在一起 一名军人的男友向她求婚了。

“他要从前面回来，叫她3点钟来 20岁的玛丽亚 ·布德尼年科说

医务人员。她的朋友在长凳上等候，穿着一双斜纹拖鞋 用她的绿色疲劳。

几分钟后，士兵单膝突然求婚 在一群欢呼的同伴面前。

“这是一场战争，但爱还在继续， ”布德尼琴科说。

回到救护车上，米哈伊洛娃，她穿着一双

她的喇叭背心上有创伤痕迹，臀部上有一把格洛克9毫米手枪， 需要她所有的经验来维持她的病人的内伤

活着的在医院里，他们叫醒了推着伤员的医生 做了6个小时的手术。

医生出来后，她问： “是谁包扎了这个人的伤口？ ”

那么满是纱布？ ”

米哈伊洛娃记得她举起手前的恐慌；那有 是她即兴的治疗。

“干得好， ”医生说。“这也是他还活着的原因之一。”

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![](/media/202412//1733467441.9215524.png)

On the frontlines, Ukrainian women are often the first

responders

![](/media/202412//1733467441.9303.png)

Serhii Korolchuk

July 3, 2022 at 2:00 a.m. EDT

![](/media/202412//1733467441.9389496.png)

Hanna Khurava, a medic in the Ukrainian military, treats Dema, 37, a soldier wounded in a Russian strike in Perelzne, a village near the

embattled city of Lysychansk on July 1. (Heidi Levine for The Washington Post)

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BAKHMUT, Ukraine — Alina Mykhailova was asleep on the floor of an

empty warehouse, the only woman amid dozens of soldiers getting what rest they could after days of fighting. She awoke at the sound of an

explosion, such a frequent occurrence on Ukraine’s frontlines that it didn’t disturb most of her exhausted companions.

“I had a strange feeling about this one,” said Mykhailova, a medic in an army assault company, and she was already dressing when she got the call: A Russian missile had hit the unit.

Mykhailova sped to the location and found a soldier with gaping

wounds in his belly. They loaded him into the converted Volkswagen

Transporter for the rough hour-long drive to the hospital. “Everytime we hit a bump, he groaned,” she said. “I realized there must be shrapnel

moving in his body, cutting the organs.”

Weeks later, she recalled that the patient’s blood pressure was

plummeting so she improvised a treatment, packing gauze into the

wounds to keep the sharp metal from shifting dangerously and slicing vital organs. At no time has her wartime transformation been more

striking: From vegetarian political science major in Kyiv to combat medic on the frontlines.

![](/media/202412//1733467441.9536657.png)“I was simply a girl who liked to snowboard,” she said, sitting in her ambulance with the sound of artillery all around, waiting for the next [call as casualty rates spike under Russia’s withering attacks along the eastern front. “But I decided this is where I needed to be.”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/22/ukraine-lysychansk-battle-preparations-russia/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6)

The frontline units fighting against Russia’s push to take control of the entire Donbas region are overwhelmingly male. But when the men are wounded, often a woman jumps out of the ambulance.

Women now account for about 22 percent of Ukraine’s military, a climb that began with the Russian-backed war in the east starting in 2014 but has soared since Russia’s full-scale invasion four months ago, according

to Kateryna Pryimak, co-founder of Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement.

“Since February, the numbers of women signing up keeps growing and

growing,” she said.

[Latest updates from the Ukraine war](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/07/01/russia-ukraine-war-putin-news-live-updates/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_11)

Hanna Khurava has seen a big jumpin the number of women serving in front-line units since she became a medic in 2016. Then, women served mostly in support roles and cooked in unit kitchens. “Now I see women drivers, mechanics, medics, machine gunners, commanders.”

A few weeks before Russian tanks rolled across the borders, Khurava married the soldier who drives her ambulance. “Nice place for a

honeymoon, right?” she asked, looking around at the sandbags banked against the hospital in Kramatorsk where she brings many of the

casualties.

Her new husband tried to dissuade her from joining the front-line

effort, telling her it was his time to take risks and her time to be safe. She told him nothing had changed with their exchange of rings.

“Isaid, ‘If you are going to be on the first bus going out, I’m going to be on the second bus,’ ” she said.

On Friday, the couple was spending a 24-hour shift in a village west of the embattled city of Lysychansk. Their ambulance was parked under a tree to shield it from being seen by Russian drones, next to a dugout bomb bunker covered in logs and earth.

It had been quiet until a Ukrainian Grad artillery battery erupted in

smoke and thunder just across a village pasture. The Grad, a Soviet-era mobile rocket launcher, can launch a salvo of up to 40 122-mm

projectiles, then speed away before the Russians can lock onto the location and return fire.

Within seconds after the barrage, a whistling boom sounded and a massive plume of smoke billowed from the Grad’s launch spot. And another. And another.

“We fire the Grad, and then the Russians retaliate,” Khurava said as she pulled on her flak vest.

Sure enough, 20 minutes later a group of soldiers screeched to halt by the ambulance. They were carrying a soldier with shallow wound on his forehead from one of the blasts.

“Comeback to get the bandage changed,” she told the soldier after she had patched him up.

Women who travel [into the most dangerous parts of the war](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/26/ukraine-kramatorsk-cluster-bomb/?itid=lk_inline_manual_26)say they do face resistance, often from male partners, parents and older soldiers

who see their own wives, sisters and daughters in the faces of the young medics.

“Right now, I am basically lying to my parents,” said Liana Nigoyan, a

24-year-old medic who deploys out of Bakhmut. “They think I’m working at a good job opportunity in Kyiv.”

Nigoyan was a nurse in a clinic in Dnipro when the war started. She had been a volunteer medic in 2016 and signed up for the army medical

corps immediately.

But four months later, she still fears it would be too upsetting for her

father, who has a heart condition, to know she has exchanged the sterile calm of a private practice — “Everything was white; everything was

quiet” — for a routine of ducking and counting to eight after an artillery strike before she sprints to the next patient.

The shift was hard for her, too. Her first battlefield casualty, a soldier shot by a sniper, died in her ambulance. The urgent reality of her new work hither hard,she said. She was more steeled for the second call, a machine-gunner hit by shrapnel.

“We saved him,” she said. “One of the other guys in the unit, a veterinarian, helped me.”

Dozens of a subsequent calls have taught Nigoyan, who can’tfind body armor small enough to fit her properly, to exude confidence with

soldiers who are bigger, older and more battle-hardened.

[Rural rhythms upended by war on the road to Ukraine’s front lines](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/06/28/ukraine-frontline-road-rural-life-upended/?itid=lk_interstitial_manual_35)

“If I have to be strict,I can be,” she said, recalling one wounded soldier she overruled when he asked her not to cut off his pants out of modesty around a woman. “It helps to relax them for me to be sure of what I’m doing.”

Irina Pukas, a 13-year veteran of the army medical corps, said she has honed a blend of maternal care and combat cred to be a more effective medic to soldiers who are often younger than her own grown sons.

Her artillery unit was hit hard by Russian shelling a few weeks ago.

After treating the injured — and securing the dead — she was asked to help a group of soldiers who were so frightened they refused to takeoff their vests and helmets even after they had been evacuated to safety.

“I tried to relax them as both a mother and a soldier,” said Pukas, 48. “It helped that I was woman, and also that I could tell themI have been

under serious shelling myself, many times.”

Life on the frontlines means toggling between war life and personal life. On a recent afternoon between calls to the front, two medics

hurried outside a hospital in Sloviansk to be with a friend when her soldier-boyfriend proposed to her.

“He’s coming back from the front and said for her to be here at 3 o’clock and to change into nice shoes,” said Maria Budnichenko, 20, one of the

medics. Her friend, waiting on a bench, was wearing a spangled slippers with her green fatigues.

The soldier, on one knee, popped the question a few minutes later in front of a cheering crowd of their unit mates.

“It’s a war, but love continues,” Budnichenko said.

Back in the bumping ambulance, Mykhailova, who wears a pair of

trauma sheers on her flak vest and a Glock 9mm handgun on her hip,

needed all her experience to keep her patient with internal injuries

alive. At the hospital, they woke doctors who wheeled the wounded man in for six hours of surgery.

When the doctor came out, she asked, “Who packed this man’s wound so full of gauze?”

Mykhailova remembers panicking before raising her hand; that had been her improvised treatment.

“Good work,” the doctor said. “That is one of the reasons he is alive.” Understanding the Russia-Ukraine conflict

HAND CURATED

[How Russia learned from mistakes to slow Ukraine’s counteroffensive](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/08/russia-ukraine-defense-counteroffensive/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_1)

[September 8, 2023](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/09/08/russia-ukraine-defense-counteroffensive/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_1)

[Before Prigozhin plane crash, Russia was preparing for life after Wagner](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/25/wagner-group-successors-mercenary-companies/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_2)

[August 28, 2023](http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/08/25/wagner-group-successors-mercenary-companies/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_2)

[Inside the Russian effort to build 6,000 attack drones with Iran’s help](http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/08/17/russia-iran-drone-shahed-alabuga/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_3) [August 17, 2023](http://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2023/08/17/russia-iran-drone-shahed-alabuga/?itid=co_russia-ukraine-explained_3)