News

Last week, together with Elbi hilft Ukraine, we completed and handed over to a hospital one of the VETERANKA’s large-scale projects – our evacuation ambulance bus that will save the lives of wounded soldiers. Together with Elbi hilft Ukraine, we repaired, repainted, refitted and delivered the evacuation bus to one of the military hospitals in […]

On March 6, the co-founder of VETERANKA, Kateryna Pryimak, made history as the first representative of the Women Veteran Movement to speak at the 67th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women as part of the official delegation of the Government of Ukraine. We are proud to have the opportunity to represent […]

Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement: for women, by women.

UWVM evolved from an advocacy initiative Invisible Battalion. Female veterans began advocating for the rights of women in the army. In 2018, UWVM was registered as an NGO to continue fighting for equal rights.

Since 2014 when russia first invaded Ukraine, thousands of women served in the Ukrainian Armed Forces — even if it meant fighting in men’s uniforms. Now, there is 60,000 women in the Ukrainian army. Our advocacy campaigns led to state law changes & now, women in the army are finally able to hold combat positions…

How to deliver thousands of first-aid kits from abroad and raise money at a photo exhibition? It’s easy if you’re Andrianna Matskiv, a volunteer of the Women Veterans and head of partnerships. Before the invasion, Audrey was engaged in real estate and after Victory plans to concentrate on the recovery of the Ukrainian economy and […]

The leader of our Movement and our sister Andriana was wounded on the front and is currently in the hospital. This news has shocked many, as everyone knows her as a sincere and kind person, a loving mother, and a dedicated warrior. ” – Andriana 300, it’s serious, being taken to Kherson.” This short call […]

Let’s be honest: what is it really like to be a woman in the military? Nadia Garan — sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, simultaneous translator, liaison officer. In this author essay, Nadia shares her vision of what women are missing in the military. About career growth, support, uniform and personal medicine – read […]

Nadiia Haran is a servicewoman, a simultaneous interpreter, a signaller. Tell me about yourself, how did your military career begin? University, Maidan, war. My parents pressured me to finish university, but I kept skipping philosophy department classes, spending time in the East instead attending charity events, working with children, and so on. Then I started […]

Alona is the first person you will see when entering the headquarters. Her workplace is at the reception of the Women Veterans Movement. She is the one who first responds to requests for assistance and works with their organization. She dreamed of becoming a volunteer, and for almost two months, she has been a member […]

Maya Moskvych is an activist, a participant of the Revolution of Dignity, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war and an active service woman, currently serving as a senior soldier in the Second Separate Rifle battalion.  She is the first woman to join Ukrainian National team in the international competitions Invictus Games, as well as gold […]

From 2014 to 2017, she was a paramedic and a volunteer in various volunteer medical brigades. During the war, she improved her skills and conducted courses in tactical medicine for the military. From the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Victoria, in the Kyiv direction, in addition to providing medical aid to the military, participated in […]

Independence Day. It has been six months since we became a single monolith, fighting for it together. Six months of intensive work by our Rapid Response Headquarters. Misha is a sailor from Mariupol. After the start of the full-scale invasion, he switched to volunteering in our Rapid Response Headquarters. Moving cargo and organizing processes in […]

Yaryna Chornohuz is a Ukrainian poet and combat medic. Her story as a military began in 2014 when she joined the “Hospitallers” Medical Battalion.  “Focus” magazine named Yaryna one of the 100 most influential people in Ukraine. And today she protects Ukrainian borders along with the strongest marines in hot war spots.  Read more about […]

Independence Day. 6 months since we became as one. 6 months since we’ve been fighting tooth and nail for our independence. 6 months of intense work of our volunteer organization. Reporting on our expenses during this time. These numbers seem astronomical, but it’s just a part of all the work that we’ve completed. Completed thanks […]

Tell me about your military experience – how did you get involved in it, and what motivates you? My story began in 2014, when I participated in the Revolution of Dignity. In the spring of the same year, as one of the first volunteers of the Maidan, I went to the Luhansk region for 5 […]

There is a new “crush” in our Drone creation team. He is 14 years old and he create drones with his father for two years. Their joint hobby starts with the fact that the boy became interested in the FPV drones he saw on the Internet. He became so interested that was able to learn […]

The blood was running underneath two tourniquets… The battlefield is not a sterile operating room and almost one thing that could help to save life is a tourniquet applied correctly. There is also tactical safety briefings where soldiers from the different divisions can learn how to apply the tourniquet. This is the thing that usually […]

This cheerful woman can sing, comfort, and hug each of us sincerely every day. Teresa is in charge of the Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement’s Rapid Response Headquarters’ “Crispy Muscovites” Bar. It is here that the famous “Bandera smoothies” are made – the famous “Molotov cocktails” in Ukraine. She willingly shares how to mix a cocktail, […]

“We have nothing left. Everything burned down.” Elena adressed Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement with this phrase. Elena is from Hostomel. After the shelling on her house, the apartment and her belongings burned to the ground. After miraculously escaping, the woman and her children hid in the basements of destroyed houses for almost two months to […]

From the first day of the war, she spends the night with her three children and two grandchildren in one of Kyiv’s bunkers to protect her family from russian missile bombardment. From the first week she collects parcels with humanitarian aid and manages the product stock of the rapid response headquarters of “Ukrainian Women Veteran […]

On February 24, my mother called me and said, “Lena, the war has begun.” Honestly, I was in a very big shock. I couldn’t believe it. I did not hear any explosions. I woke my daughter up and said, “Get up, the war has begun.” On the second or third day of the war, my […]

She is always calm, even-tempered, and friendly. Also, she can speak openly and without loud words, it seems, about everything she has in mind. So the story of 24-year-old Veronica, a volunteer of the Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement, is presented in the first person. I had a normal life. I worked in a restaurant. Six […]

Maksym Sheremet, the developer of the first Ukrainian military drone for Berehynia reconnaissance operations and ex-constructor of Ukroboronprom, has set up his laboratory on the based in Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement not only to repair and modernize quadcopters but also to mass-produce own drones. The engineer spoke about the technical characteristics of man-made drones, their […]

On February 25, our NGO Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement opened a rapid response headquarters. During this time, dozens of volunteers joined it and thousands of people have already received the necessary assistance. On the day of the establishment of the headquarters, Kateryna Pryimak, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Women Veteran Movement, started raising money for […]

The owners of this beautiful Maine Coon cat declawed him, which is a prohibited surgery, so that he wouldn’t damage the furniture. When they fled Kyiv at the beginning of the war, there was simply no room for him in their car, but it seems like there was no room for him in their hearts […]

Commanders are starting to realise that women make better soldiers than men, according to one combat veteran Women were the catalyst that brought the Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko’s 26-year-old regime to brink of collapse in the summer of 2020. Now across the border in Ukraine, women are pitching up to confront another patriarchal autocrat by enlisting in the […]