{"id":42749,"date":"2024-05-04T08:17:55","date_gmt":"2024-05-04T08:17:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/04\/family-values-or-fighting-valor-russia-grapples-with-womens-wartime-role\/"},"modified":"2024-05-04T08:17:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-04T08:17:55","slug":"family-values-or-fighting-valor-russia-grapples-with-womens-wartime-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/04\/family-values-or-fighting-valor-russia-grapples-with-womens-wartime-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Values or Fighting Valor? Russia Grapples With Women\u2019s Wartime Role."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/00russia-women-soldiers-promo-1-ftwz\/00russia-women-soldiers-promo-1-ftwz-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"Family Values or Fighting Valor? Russia Grapples With Women\u2019s Wartime Role.\" title=\"Family Values or Fighting Valor? Russia Grapples With Women\u2019s Wartime Role.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian Army is gradually expanding the role of women as it seeks to balance President Vladimir V. Putin\u2019s promotion of traditional family roles with the need for new recruits for the war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The military\u2019s stepped-up appeal to women includes efforts to recruit female inmates in prisons, replicating on a much smaller scale a strategy that has swelled its ranks with male convicts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Recruiters in military uniforms toured Russian jails for women in the fall of 2023, offering inmates a pardon and $2,000 a month \u2014 10 times the national minimum wage \u2014 in return for serving in frontline roles for a year, according to six current and former inmates of three prisons in different regions of Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dozens of inmates just from those prisons have signed military contracts or applied to enlist, the women said, a sampling that \u2014 along with <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/sotaproject\/63865\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">local media reports<\/a> about recruitment in other regions \u2014 suggests a broader effort to enlist female convicts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">It\u2019s not just convicts. Women now feature in Russian military <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/laishevskyi.ru\/news\/kriminal\/tolko-do-25-marta-400-000-rublei-edinovremenno-1709813936\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recruitment advertisements<\/a> across the country. A pro-Kremlin paramilitary unit fighting in Ukraine <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/spainrus\/947\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">also recruits women<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cCombat experience and military specialties are not required,\u201d read an advertisement aimed at women that was posted in March in Russia\u2019s Tatarstan region. It offered training and a sign-up bonus equivalent to $4,000. \u201cWe have one goal \u2014 victory!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian military\u2019s need to replenish its ranks for what it presents as a long-term war against Ukraine and its Western allies, however, has clashed with Mr. Putin\u2019s ideological struggle, which portrays Russia as a bastion of social conservatism standing up to the decadent West.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Putin has placed women at the core of this vision, portraying them as child-bearers, mothers and wives guarding the nation\u2019s social harmony.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe most important thing for every women, no matter what profession she has chosen and what heights she has reached, is the family,\u201d Mr. Putin said <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"http:\/\/kremlin.ru\/events\/president\/news\/73624\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in a speech on March 8<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">These clashing military and social priorities have resulted in contradictory policies that seek to recruit women to the military to fill a need, but send conflicting signals about the roles women can assume there.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI have gotten used to the fact that I am often looked at like a monkey, like, \u2018Wow, she\u2019s in fatigues!\u2019\u201d said Ksenia Shkoda, a native of central Ukraine who has fought for pro-Russian forces since 2014. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Some female volunteers do not make it to Ukraine. The convicts who enlisted in late 2023 have yet to be sent to fight, the six former and current inmates said. They spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of possible retribution.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The reason for the delay in their deployment is unknown; the Russian defense ministry and prison service did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Shkoda and six other women fighting for Russia in Ukraine said in phone interviews or in written answers to questions that local recruitment offices still routinely turned away female volunteers or sent them to reserves. This occurs even as other officials target them with advertisements to meet broader quotas, underscoring the inherent contradiction in Russia\u2019s recruitment policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Tatiana Dvornikova, a Russian sociologist studying prisons for women, believes the Russian Army would delay sending female convicts into battle as long as it has other recruitment options.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt would create a very unpleasant reputational risk for the Russian Army,\u201d she said, because most Russians would view such a breach of social mores as a sign of desperation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian Army is on the attack in Ukraine. But its incremental gains <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/02\/27\/world\/europe\/russia-deaths-avdiivka-strategy.html\" title=\"\">have come at very high cost<\/a>, requiring a constant search for recruits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, women who wanted to fight for the Kremlin often found their way to the front through militias in the east of Ukraine, rather than regular forces. These separatist units were chronically understaffed after a decade of smaller-scale conflict against Kyiv.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThey accepted anyone \u2014 absolutely anyone,\u201d said Anna Ilyasova, who grew up in Ukraine\u2019s Donetsk region and joined the local separatist militia days before Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. \u201cI couldn\u2019t even hold an automatic rifle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After serving in combat, Ms. Ilyasova now works as a political officer in a regular Russian battalion fighting in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Other women joined a Russian paramilitary unit started by soccer hooligans, called Espa\u00f1ola. It <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/spainrus\/372\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">opened its ranks to women<\/a> in September 2022, and has published recruitment videos publicizing their combat roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThese people take care of me, they are like a family,\u201d said an Espa\u00f1ola fighter from Crimea who goes by the call sign Poshest, meaning \u201cPlague.\u201d She has fought with Espa\u00f1ola since 2022 as a medic, sniper and airplane pilot.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<div data-testid=\"imageblock-wrapper\">\n<figure class=\"img-sz-small css-nss59b e1g7ppur0\" aria-label=\"media\" role=\"group\"><figcaption data-testid=\"photoviewer-children-caption\" class=\"css-1ybnr6m ewdxa0s0\"><span class=\"css-jevhma e13ogyst0\">An undated photo of a female Russian paramilitary who goes by the call sign Poshest, meaning \u201cPlague.\u201d<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">All of the interviewed female soldiers said women remained rare in their units, outside medical roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Russia\u2019s cautious approach to women\u2019s participation in the military differs from the more liberal policy adopted by Ukraine. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The number of women serving in Ukrainian military has risen by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/03\/10\/world\/europe\/ukraine-women-soldiers-army.html?searchResultPosition=1\" title=\"\">40 percent since the invasion, reaching 43,000 in late 2023,<\/a> according the country\u2019s defense ministry. After the invasion, the Ukrainian military abolished gender restrictions on many combat roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The much larger Russian military also had about 40,000 servicewomen before the war. The majority, however, have served in administrative roles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For both Russia and Ukraine, the military opportunities available to women have long fluctuated with recruitment needs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Russian Empire, which included most of modern Ukraine, created its first female combat units toward the end of World War I, after years of heavy losses. Decades later, the Soviet Union <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/global-strategy.org\/the-invisible-combatants-of-world-war-ii-soviet-female-soldiers-in-the-socialist-state\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">became the first country<\/a> to call up women for combat, to compensate for the millions of casualties suffered in the first year of the Nazi invasion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The lionization of female snipers and fighter pilots in World War II, however, masked the discrimination and sexual abuse many women faced as soldiers. The discrimination has continued into the modern era, exemplified by the way Russian women <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.severreal.org\/a\/30432496.html\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">have struggled to collect the military benefits<\/a> for their service in the Afghanistan War.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In Ukraine, the majority of Russian female soldiers interviewed for this article denied facing open discrimination. But some described male peers who felt the need to protect them, echoing the country\u2019s traditional gender roles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cMy constant urge to throw myself into the thick of the battle is often halted with arguments like: \u2018But you\u2019re a girl!\u2019\u201d said Ms. Shkoda, the pro-Russian soldier. \u201cAnd this drives me absolutely mad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Ilyasova, the Russian Army officer, said she had repeatedly turned down marriage proposals from a man in her unit.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cI always say that I\u2019m married to war\u201d to deflect the unwanted romantic attention, Ms. Ilyasova added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ruslan Pukhov, a Moscow-based security analyst who sits on the defense ministry\u2019s advisory council, said the Russian Army had been trying to recruit more women for rear-guard roles such as mechanics and administrators for years, because they are viewed as hard workers who drink less.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The idea of using women in combat begun to gain supporters among generals following Russia\u2019s intervention in the Syrian civil war in 2015, which brought them in contact with the disciplined women fighters of the Kurd militias, Mr. Pukhov said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The invasion of Ukraine in 2022, has brought the idea to the fore, leading Russia to consider the military potential of about 40,000 women who were imprisoned in the country in the first year of the war.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Prison officials started compiling lists of inmates with medical training in at least some jails for women soon after the invasion. The six current and former inmates said they were not told the purpose of the medical lists, but assumed that they were a shortlist for military recruitment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Then, in autumn of 2023, men in military uniforms visited each of the two prisons twice, the inmates said. They offered women contracts to be trained to serve as snipers, combat medics or radio operators. In another female prison, in the Ural Mountains, officials put up the recruitment offer on the bulletin board, and asked interested inmates to write a petition to join the army.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cEveryone wanted to go, because, despite everything, it\u2019s still freedom,\u201d said Yulia, who said she applied to join the army while serving a sentence for murder. \u201cEither I would die, or I would buy an apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dozens of women in the three colonies, which were all in the European part of Russia, accepted the offer, the six current and former inmates said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In interviews, these women cited enlistment motives similar to those of male convicts: freedom, money and regaining their sense of self-worth. The reality of Russian prisons for women, however, accentuated these needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Female inmates in Russia are subject to stricter rules and more compulsory labor than men. And on their release, they face even greater social isolation, because apart from breaking the law, they shatter the Russian society\u2019s image of women\u2019s behavior, said Ms. Dvornikova, the sociologist.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That was the experience of one inmate named Maria, who said she had enlisted to fight in Ukraine with just months to go on her sentence for theft. She took the risk because the pardon would erase her criminal record, allowing her to provide for her daughter if she survived.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But after signing the military contract late last year, Maria said she and other volunteers from her jail have not been called up, and she struggled to keep a job once her employers discovered her previous criminal record.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Maria said she eventually found informal work as a seamstress, but would still go to war if called up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In jail, \u201call we cared about was for them to take us away, and send us to fight,\u201d said Maria. \u201cI will be in the recruitment office the next day, if I hear that the process got underway.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-798hid etfikam0\">Oleg Matsnev<!-- -->, <!-- -->Alina Lobzina<!-- -->, <!-- -->Andrew E. Kramer<!-- --> and <!-- -->Carlotta Gall<!-- --> contributed reporting to the story.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/04\/world\/europe\/russia-soldiers-women.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Russian Army is gradually expanding the role of women as it seeks to balance President Vladimir V. Putin\u2019s promotion of traditional family roles with the need for new recruits for the war in Ukraine. The military\u2019s stepped-up appeal to women includes efforts to recruit female inmates in prisons, replicating on a much smaller scale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42750,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/04\/25\/multimedia\/00russia-women-soldiers-promo-1-ftwz\/00russia-women-soldiers-promo-1-ftwz-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17,75,20406,266,202,44155,8973,26094,708],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42749"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42751,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42749\/revisions\/42751"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}