They fight for their slain men

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Svitlana Povar and her husband Semen came to an agreement: she stayed at home for her son’s sake, he went to the front so that their child could one day live in peace. But then Semen Powar was killed, Switlana found out on her 42nd birthday in September. Since then she no longer feels bound by the pact, she has volunteered for military service.

“I spent five months begging at the doors of the military offices,” says Powar. In the end, the army took the widow in. Since then it has been in action near Bakhmut in the east – where the fighting is fiercest. “Sometimes I feel like someone is watching over me. I tell myself that he exists, that he helps me.”

As Powar speaks, she stares out the window of her Soviet-era Kiev apartment. She is currently on leave from the front. She presses her hands together as she talks, then tears well up in her eyes.

The desire to fight the Russian invasion was born not out of revenge, but out of the need to finish what her husband started, says Powar. “My husband always said that we should pass on our faith in God, the love of our country and the gift of mercy – not the war. We should end it, not our children.”

Powar did not tell her son that she would fight on the spot where his father died as a sniper. But her son, who is studying in Poland, eventually found out for himself. Since then he has been trying to discuss with her what to do if she too is killed by the Russian army. But Powar doesn’t want to talk about it. “If he starts doing this, I will cut off these conversations and tell him everything will be fine.”

42,000 women in the Ukrainian army

According to official figures, 42,000 women serve in the Ukrainian army, of which 5,000 are at the front. There are no figures on how many of them are soldier widows. However, Switlana Powar is certainly not alone.

Yevgenia Kolesnichenko from the devastated city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region decided to go to the front – as a medic – at her husband’s funeral. Kolesnichenko was already safe in Poland with her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old twin boys when the call came in November that her husband had died in Bakhmut.

“When he died, it became clear to me that someone had to stand up for his cause,” says the 34-year-old from Karlivka in eastern Ukraine. Before the war she had her own shop where she designed embroidery patterns.

After the Russian attack, Kolesnichenko wanted to work as a military medic, but her husband had opposed it. Could she have saved him? “I know he couldn’t survive with his injuries. But now I do my best to save other heroes,” she says. The thunder of shells from the front can be heard in the distance, bees buzz nearby. “I work so that as many husbands and sons as possible return home.”

Two of Kolesnichenko’s colleagues also lost their husbands in the war. She also knows women who fight at the front like Switlana Powar. The future of the country is at stake, says Kolesnichenko. “That’s why I’m here.” She is aware that her children may soon be orphans. Kolesnichenko has already arranged who would take care of the three.