‘I can do the same job as a man’: Ukraine’s first frontline female commander on war, grief – and her hope for the future
Yulia Mykytenko leads a platoon of men in a reconnaissance and attack unit – and has already lost her husband, father and many friends in the devastating war. In her memoir, she writes that she was always destined for combat
The sound of birdsong is so loud outside Yulia Mykytenko’s current home, an abandoned house somewhere in the Donbas region of Ukraine, that I can hear it through my laptop. We’re speaking on Zoom, Mykytenko visible briefly – young, wearing black, her dark bobbed hair with blue-dyed streaks in it – before she turns the camera off because her signal isn’t great. She has some outside space and, she says with a laugh, a local sheep sometimes comes to visit her dog. Mykytenko, a lieutenant in the Ukrainian army, also feeds the street cats, pets abandoned by residents who fled, and has her own cat. In her new memoir, How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying (the name comes from the first line of a poem by the Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus), she writes that each of the houses her 15-strong platoon live in has a cat, to catch the mice and rats that chew everything, including the cables to the generators and satellite communications. Their numbers boom in the area, she writes, as they “feed on the bodies of hapless soldiers”.
Mykytenko, 29, spent two years here between 2016 and 2018, when Russia invaded the region, then again after the full-scale invasion in 2022. One of the first female frontline commanders, she leads a reconnaissance and attack unit. Her pilots use drones to track the Russian army and to locate the dead bodies of fallen colleagues and support their retrieval. Just this morning, some of her men – she lives with five of her platoon – told her there had been some heavy shelling at 5am, but she slept through it. “I got used to it,” she says. This current house is “quite comfortable” – it has running water (at the previous one, they had to fetch water from a well), but it is cold and takes an hour to heat.
Continue reading...Date: |
-
Politics - The Hill
Biden says 'a woman can do anything a man can do, and then some'
17 hours ago - Joe Biden -
Sports - ESPN
Slot on TAA future: 'Same question, same answer'
4 days ago -
World - Financial Times
Only Nato can secure a ‘West German’ future for Ukraine
Yesterday - Ukraine -
World - The Guardian
‘I miss her a lot’: Andrew Garfield telling Elmo about grief was his best work yet
Yesterday -
Sports - CBS Sports
Pep Guardiola suggests 'anything can happen' over his future amid talk of England job, Manchester City exit
October 14 -
Entertainment - Los Angeles Times
Vice President Harris will do her first Fox News interview Wednesday
October 14 -
Business - CNBC
The 'smartest' thing this HR expert negotiated in a job offer: 'I tell my clients to do that all the time'
3 hours ago -
Business - MarketWatch
‘Being divorced, I want to look out for her’: I gave my daughter $100K for a house. She’s buying a new home with her husband. What happens to my gift?
47 minutes ago -
Top stories - NBC News
Inside the big summit where Putin hopes to defy western pressure on Ukraine war
7 hours ago - Ukraine
More from The Guardian
-
World - The Guardian
Harris campaign reportedly fears ‘blue wall’ could crumble; Eminem to introduce Obama at rally – US politics live
23 minutes ago -
World - The Guardian
Thom Yorke and Julianne Moore join thousands of creatives in AI warning
2 hours ago -
World - The Guardian
‘Utter ruin’: Gaza economy would take 350 years to return to pre-conflict level, UN says
1 hour ago -
World - The Guardian
Former Abercrombie CEO arrested amid sex trafficking investigation
3 hours ago -
World - The Guardian
Two men plead guilty to Canadian killing of Sikh man acquitted in 1985 Air India bombing
1 hour ago
Latest in World
-
World - ABC News
A UK lawmaker wants protected status for classic Cockney dish pie and mash
12 minutes ago - United Kingdom -
World - The New York Times
Middle East Crisis: Live Updates: Blinken Urges Netanyahu to Seek Truces in Gaza and Lebanon
13 minutes ago -
World - The New York Times
What Is Al-Qard al-Hasan, the Hezbollah-Linked Finance Group Targeted by Israel?
13 minutes ago - Israel -
World - The New York Times
India and China Reach Border Deal That Could Ease Tension
16 minutes ago - China -
World - The New York Times
U.S. to Give Ukraine Millions to Build More Long-Range Drones
17 minutes ago - Ukraine