A 79-year-old woman in Ukraine, Valentyna Konstantinovska, is ready to pick up weapons and fight against Russian soldiers. She is part of an army of older women volunteers, referred to as the babushka (literally meaning “old woman or grandmother”) battalion, who have dug trenches, provided supplies, made nets, offered medical care and even built a lookout tower ever since the conflict started in the country in 2014.
As Ukraine had been warned by the US about the intent of the Russian soldiers, many women have been ready to go to any extent—even launching a babushka battalion—to help their country.
“I love my city, I am not leaving. Putin can’t scare us off. Yes, it’s terrifying, but we will stand for our Ukraine until the very end,” Konstantinovska had said during an event that aimed to teach the city’s residents to prepare and defend themselves in a war-like situation.
Organised by Azov, Ukraine residents were given training in first response medical care, survival and evacuation, weapons safety and how to shoot a weapon. “I’ve been dreaming since 2014 to learn to use a gun, but was told ‘babushka, you are too old for that. You will be knocked off your feet with the recoil’,” Konstantinovska was quoted as saying by Al Jazeera.
The Azov movement is an infamous far-right all-volunteer infantry military unit that have been accused of fostering neo-Nazi and white supremacist ideology. Hence, they receive little support and were also banned from Facebook in 2019 for hate speech.
Konstantinovska, claims that she does not share their political views and that she does care about defending her motherland. Liudmyla Halbay, a 72-year-old woman who runs free Ukrainian-language classes in a region that is predominantly Russian-speaking, said she will fight at any cost. “I didn’t have an evacuation bag in 2014 and I don’t have one now. When everything was burning and collapsing all around me, all I did was watch for how I could help,” Halbay expressed.
Image courtesy: Al Jazeera