From the dreadful Strimpel woman who snitched on a pro-Palestinian artist in Brighton and lied about the altercation which she provoked - https://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1774570970.html Note the bolded reference to a certain genocidal apartheid entity and how they provide the enlightened, progressive example we must all follow.

jeers,
I

h/t https://xcancel.com/simpatico771/

*****

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/23/the-fight-against-putin-shows-what-women-are-really-capable/

paywall bypass:
https://archive.is/20260823174229/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/08/23/the-fight-against-putin-shows-what-women-are-really-capable/#selection-2156.0-2156.1

Ukraine’s fight against Putin shows what women are really capable of
Through real acts of bravery, commitment and hard graft, women are proving their mettle on the front line and in other roles

Zoe Strimpel

Published 23 August 2026

One of the more intriguing (and heartening) consequences of Ukraine’s four-year struggle against Vladimir Putin’s despotism has been the perception of what women are capable of.
I argued in my recent book Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free that the pervasive idea that we aren’t brave, focused and tough enough for front-line military work is nonsense.

Critics have, predictably, lambasted me for my “Pollyanna-ish” belief in female strength and progress, but the rapid evolution of women’s status in the war effort of President Zelensky’s forces is proving me right.

Ukraine, still a macho society, is nonetheless becoming the most extraordinary example of women bucking all the stereotypes about being too cuddly and weak for war. Not that it matters, but these aren’t big butch broads; many are beautiful, slender women who could easily coast on their looks without bothering to do combat training and learn to operate drones.

Of around 75,000 women who serve in the Ukrainian armed forces, more than 55,000 are active servicewomen (around eight per cent of the overall force), a figure that has more than doubled since February 2022 – when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

In the British Army, women make up 11.7 per cent of active members, but, given we are not in a civilisational war, it’s a much less risky endeavour. The UK too is a much less sexist society than Ukraine.

Combat roles is where the rubber hits the road: there is nothing more dangerous than being a front-line Ukrainian soldier, so it is impressive that there are around 5,500 female fighters. In the UK, by contrast, fewer than 300 women are in close-combat roles.
Of course, relative numbers are still low, but the increase is startling: the proportion of female officers in Ukraine grew from four to 21 per cent between 2023 and early 2026, according to Ukraine’s military. Women now command platoons, companies, and military units, too.

It’s not just in combat and command roles that women are showing their mettle: they’re at the levers of commerce and power too. I can’t think of a Western female equivalent to 34-year-old Iryna Terekh, who is the chief executive and chief technologist of Fire Point, a start-up Ukrainian weapons firm making missiles and drones for use against Russia.
“We are fighting for our survival, and we need to survive just one day longer than [the] Russian Empire,” Terekh has said. “Russia only wants to finish this war when Ukraine does not exist at all.”

You have to love the sight of Terekh, a stunning brunette with high cheekbones, luscious glossy lips and chic, understated garb, speaking to reporters against a backdrop depicting the launch of the pink Flamingo cruise missile she developed with Fire Point.
What’s all the more impressive is how determined Ukraine’s warrior women have had to be to get here, given the entrenched sexism they face. Despite women’s crucial contribution, Ukrainian command positions still remain almost exclusively male.

Of 23 parliamentary committees in Ukraine, women chair just three. The defence and security committee has no women in its leadership. At this year’s influential Bilderberg Conference in Washington DC, Terekh was the only woman present from Ukraine.
I was deeply struck by a recent set of interviews with Ukrainian women who enlisted after Russia’s invasion. Alya, 35, a former dancer, became a surgeon in the army. The bravery she exhibited treating young men blown to bits by shrapnel was in stark contrast to the attitudes of male soldiers she encountered when she first signed up.

She told The Times: “[The men] say: ‘Oh, she’s a beautiful doll — she can’t be smart enough.’ Or else it might be: ‘Oh, she’s come to search for a husband here.’ To which my response was: ‘Listen, I was a ballet dancer, I was spoilt for choice. I didn’t have to join the army to find a husband.’”

Katya, 31, now a drone operator, was an astrophysics student before volunteering in 2015 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of fighting in the Donbas. She grew up loving JRR Tolkien’s works, and especially the warrior Aragorn in the The Lord of the Rings.

“I have a strong sense of justice, and my favourite heroes were always fighting dark forces,” she said. “I felt I too should go to war.” She too faced overwhelming harassment in her brigade, which left her afraid for her safety. As she put it, instead of fighting Russia, she was forced into her own little war with rank misogyny. Now she’s in a small unit with her boyfriend, firing drones on Russian targets.

Notably, Katya finds Israel’s conscription of both sexes inspiring. “I would like to see the same in Ukraine, because everyone needs to be protected. I think there should be mobilisation of women, like there is with men. Everyone needs the same kind of training, women included,” she said.

The feminist transformation of Ukraine has some way to go. But through real acts of bravery, commitment and hard graft, women are proving their mettle and winning the kind of trust they ought not to have to win, but which is nonetheless necessary.

The results are already revolutionising Ukrainian society and military prowess. Now the rest of the world has to catch up, before the enemy is at our gates too.