In Ukraine, women prepare for the idea of ​​being drafted to strengthen the army

Ukraine begins plan to recruit at least 500,000 men to fight war against Russia. Kyiv can recruit especially many women, as the army is particularly short of medical personnel.

This is a topic that particularly worries Ukrainians this week: the army is short of soldiers. kyiv announces it must recruit at least 500,000 to counter Russia.
The government will have to propose a new text in the coming days and there is uncertainty over women. So far only volunteers have joined the army. But there is a shortage of medical personnel who can be recruited as nurses, doctors or dentists.

At a dental office in Kiev, Alexandra, a 32-year-old dentist, leans over her patient. She tries to get used to this idea: if she is called, she will agree to go to war. “I don’t have children. It would obviously be a form of sacrifice for me. But it’s better that women like me go instead as mothers.”

“I’m trying to prepare myself mentally.”

Beside him, his colleague Julia, 31 years old. She says the mere mention of the subject breaks down. “We’re human, we all want to live our lives. We don’t want to die.” A thirty-year-old young man is constantly caught up in the war. She had to flee her city, now occupied by Russia, and took refuge in Kiev with her family. And now she anxiously awaits this law. Julia is terrified in Kiev, so imagining herself on the front lines, infinitely more dangerous, no. She is obviously afraid of losing her life, but also of leaving her family.

“I took out my mother and my grandmother who have cancer. I’m the only person who supports them financially. I’m not ready to leave them like this and go to war.”

Julia, 31 years old

at franceinfo

At the front, there is an acute shortage of medical personnel. Sofia knows it: she is preparing to leave Ukraine for a few days. A psychiatrist in Lviv, he treats soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress
She is also anxiously waiting for this law. “I’m trying to prepare myself mentally, because I don’t have kids. I’m trying to prepare myself for the fact that they’re going to call me eventually. They’re going to have to pull us away first. I start to panic. Am. Sometimes. But we have to be prepared. That everyone in the country will eventually have to go to war.”

Sophia also dreams of having a child one day. She is 28 years old. Like many young Ukrainians, she is looking forward to the new draft law on mobility that is due to be released in a few days.