Mothers, Wives, and Widows: Women at the Heart of Ukraine’s War

In the shattered cities and rural heartlands of a nation at war, where artillery shakes the earth and drones buzz overhead like vultures, the enduring presence and labour of Ukrainian women has become a cornerstone of national survival. While the war is often narrated in the language of trenches, tanks and territorial lines, its quiet centre — its emotional, logistical, and humanitarian core — is occupied by women. They are not only mourning, waiting, or coping. They are leading, building, and resisting.

Here we explore the manifold roles Ukrainian women play in the context of Russia’s war of aggression. We examine the burdens they bear, the structures they sustain, and the spaces they claim. From soldiers on the front line to mothers raising children under fire, from displaced widows rebuilding their lives to wives separated by endless rotations, women are not merely enduring the war — they are shaping its course and will shape the peace that follows.

The Emotional Front Line: Waiting, Worrying, Enduring

Across the towns and villages of Ukraine, millions of women have been left behind as husbands, partners, brothers and sons have gone to war. Some have volunteered. Others were conscripted. But the result is the same: a hollow in the household, a constant dread, and the oppressive silence of absence.

Many Ukrainian women now manage households alone. They work jobs, raise children, maintain family farms, and care for elderly relatives — all while receiving irregular phone calls from the front, monitoring air raid alerts, and scanning casualty lists. The psychological strain is unrelenting. Sleep is broken by sirens and the subconscious calculation of what life insurance may cover. In cities like Lviv, Dnipro and Vinnytsia, support groups for war wives have become lifelines — informal spaces where grief is managed communally, where anxiety is named and soothed.

Yet the emotional labour of waiting is rarely acknowledged in national narratives of heroism. These women hold the line behind the line, absorbing the war’s invisible weight.

Widows of the Fallen: Life After Loss

As Ukrainian casualties continue to mount — with tens of thousands killed since 2022 — an entire generation of widows is emerging. These women, often young, are left to raise children alone, negotiate bureaucracies, and find meaning in a death that came without warning or closure.

Some become vocal activists, demanding better veteran policies, transparency in casualty reporting, or accountability from the Ministry of Defence. Others channel their grief into quiet forms of service: volunteering at hospitals, baking for displaced families, fundraising for battalions. A striking number return to school, retrain, or enter politics, as though the finality of their loss compels them to reclaim public space.

The state provides some financial compensation, but for most widows, what is needed cannot be paid — recognition, dignity, and the reassurance that their husbands’ lives were not sacrificed in vain.

Women in Uniform: Fighting for a Nation That Still Learns to See Them

At the front line itself, women now make up roughly 15% of the Ukrainian Armed Forces — a figure that has risen steadily since 2014. They serve as snipers, medics, drone operators, infantry officers, intelligence analysts, and logistical coordinators. The battlefield is no longer an exclusively male space, though many cultural and institutional obstacles remain.

Uniforms are still designed for male bodies. Women frequently face sexual harassment, underrepresentation in senior ranks, and insufficient support for maternal health. Yet many persist, driven by patriotism, justice, and a fierce will to serve.

Some units are informally female-led. Others function because of female quartermasters and battalion doctors who keep the machine running. Female drone pilots — often young, tech-savvy, and unflinching — are among the most effective operators in Ukraine’s modernised military.

The war has opened a generational breach in gender norms. For many older Ukrainians, women at war still feel unfamiliar. For younger ones, it feels inevitable — and long overdue.

Displacement and the Female Burden

Over 6 million Ukrainians have been displaced internationally, and millions more internally. The majority of them are women and children. In refugee centres from Warsaw to Berlin, Ukrainian women have rebuilt lives from scratch — enrolling children in new schools, navigating foreign bureaucracies, learning new languages, and supporting one another through shared hardship.

Some have returned to Ukraine, drawn by family ties or a longing for home. Others remain abroad, working long hours in precarious jobs to send money back to relatives. They are lauded in political speeches but often face legal uncertainty, underemployment and emotional isolation.

Back in Ukraine, internally displaced women must secure housing, employment and social support in unfamiliar regions, often while caring for traumatised children. The war has created a new class of vulnerable women — those too dignified to beg, too proud to complain, and too exhausted to protest.

Nonetheless amidst it all, they organise. From collective kitchens to support networks for single mothers, they embody resilience without theatrics.

Women as Humanitarian Leaders and Civic Backbone

The civilian war effort in Ukraine would collapse without women. They run warehouses, coordinate evacuations, distribute medical supplies, and train volunteer battalions in first aid. Many operate under shelling, travelling to grey zones with food, power banks and protective battlefield clothing.

Women-led NGOs such as Women’s Perspectives, Veteranka Movement, and Zemliachky have emerged as key actors in wartime. These organisations combine advocacy, service provision, and psychological support — often with minimal funding and no international fanfare.

In liberated cities, women are the first to return to municipal work, staff schools and revive public life. Teachers — overwhelmingly female — conduct classes from basements or online, sustaining a semblance of normality for children robbed of their childhood.

Women have also taken the lead in memory work: documenting war crimes, recording testimonies, and naming the dead. In doing so, they reclaim the narrative from distant politicians and make it human.

The Future After Victory: What Kind of State for What Kind of Women?

Ukraine’s post-war reconstruction will be shaped in no small part by the women who endured, fought, and rebuilt during the war. But their contributions must not be allowed to vanish when the peace comes. There is a danger — already visible — that women will be thanked and then expected to return to secondary roles, their sacrifices reduced to footnotes.

That would be a betrayal. The war has revealed the centrality of women in every domain of Ukrainian resilience. The post-war state must enshrine that recognition in policy: gender-equitable veteran services, maternal health, equal access to political office, and protections against gender-based violence must all become national priorities.

A Nation Carried by Women

Mothers, wives, and widows: these are the public names often used to describe women in wartime. But they are also fighters, thinkers, organisers, and visionaries. Ukraine’s war is not a story told only in the language of masculinity. It is also a story of women who kept families intact, communities functioning, and the moral compass of a nation aligned.

In the long march toward justice and sovereignty, Ukrainian women are not only walking alongside — they are often leading the way. To ignore their centrality is to misunderstand both the war and the nation it seeks to preserve.