Warfare has lengthy been framed because the area of males, strengthened by language, imagery, and custom. However after Russia invaded Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in 2014, Ukrainian ladies took up arms, proving that within the struggle for nationwide sovereignty, it’s not gender however loyalty to at least one’s nation that defines a soldier.
Photographer Marisya Myanovska’s collection “Zone of Seismic Exercise” captures the position of girls in Ukraine’s Armed Forces — the place over 70,000 ladies now serve at present — not solely by means of the stark symbols of battle, akin to unexploded shells and fight uniforms, but in addition by means of intimate moments of each day life on the entrance strains. Her photographs problem conventional narratives, revealing the unseen, the neglected, and the plain presence of girls in battle.
On Worldwide Girls’s Day, the Kyiv Unbiased presents excerpts from Myanovska’s photograph collection to indicate that Ukrainian ladies defending their nation towards Russian aggression should not solely counted however seen.
An individual’s private area is a miniature universe — fragile in battle, all the time on the point of disappearing.
Identical to the universe itself.
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In August 2024, I traveled to the fight zone to doc how battle reshapes ladies's lives.
I adopted three feminine service members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine within the Kharkiv and Donetsk areas: Oksana "Ksena" Rubanyak, an unmanned aerial autos platoon commander; Andriana "Malysh" Arekhta, a weapons operator in a Particular Operations Forces unit; and Yulia "Kuba" Sidorova, a fight medic with the 92nd Separate Mechanized Brigade. I slept beside them, brushed my enamel subsequent to them, accompanied them to positions, and shared conversations over espresso. But, they hardly ever spoke of fight, focusing as an alternative on moments after they might merely be themselves.
In battle, private area is unstable. Solitude is uncommon. Boundaries shrink — to a automotive, a sleeping bag, or, if fortunate, a restroom, a bathe, or a clearing within the forest. The nearer to the "zero line," the extra space collapses inward, leaving solely the refuge of 1’s personal physique.
My undertaking explores the delicate private area of girls in battle — its boundaries, its instability, and its connection to the ever-changing entrance strains.
- Marysia Myanovska
The Kyiv IndependentOleg Petrasiuk