Ukraine's Ministry of Defense said last October that almost 43,000 women are currently serving in the military, a 40% increase since 2021, before Russia's full-scale invasion. Female combatants in Ukraine say the war is changing societal perceptions of a woman's strength, capabilities and worth, but change doesn't happen overnight. "At anything else, military women are no different from men ... [and] the more women there are who perform their duties well, the better the attitude towards military women becomes. Ukraine's defense ministry is also keen to highlight efforts it has made to level the playing field for female recruits. It's a far cry from 2021 when Ukrainian female troops were photographed practising for a parade wearing high heels with onlookers calling the policy sexist and idiotic.

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Persons: Tsybukh, Olena Bilozerska, I'm, Bilozerska, Bilozeska, Olena, Metin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, —, It's, Drahaniuk, Yuliia Organizations: Ukrainian, Assault Brigade, Anadolu, Getty, Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, CNBC, Medical Battalion, Anadolu Agency, Ukraine, Ministry of Defense Locations: Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, Russia, Crimea, Donbas, Ukraine's, Donetsk, Ukrainian, Lviv, Soviet, Kyiv, Yuliia