Images of fleeing Ukrainian women clutching suitcases and children dominated news coverage of the first weeks of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine and inspired a wave of sympathy across Europe. Eighteen months into the war, one quarter of Ukraine’s population remain refugees or are internally displaced, the majority of them women. But there is another, less known face of Ukrainian women in this war. More than 60,000 women play an active role in the defence of their country: 41,000 as members of the armed forces, of whom 5,000 are in combat positions, and another 19,000 as civilian employees devoted...