After Failing, Russia Plans to Use Women as Weapons in the Ukraine War

In light of the Russian military setbacks on Ukrainian soil since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, Moscow is turning over all the cards that support the fighting fronts there and pushing the balance of power in its favor.

After the recruitment of mercenary men, it seems that Russia, with the beginning of the year 2023, wants to repeat the experience of women fighters among the elite shooters who were affiliated with the supporter groups fought during World War II and were a focus of Soviet propaganda at the time.

 

Recruitment of Women

The Russian private Wagner mercenary group expressed intentions to recruit women detained in Russian prisons to send them to fight in Ukraine after it did the same with men.

The head of Russia’s shadowy Wagner Group of mercenaries, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has appeared in leaked footage attempting to recruit prisoners to fight in Ukraine.

Prigozhin was responding to a letter from a Russian official from Ural, in which he stated that women detainees in a prison in the city of Nizhny Tagil had asked him to send them to the Ukrainian front to help the Russian army.

“[Female inmates] should serve not only as nurses and communications operators but also in sabotage groups and sniper pairs,” he wrote in his response.

“Everyone knows that this has been widely used,” he added. “We are working in this direction. There is pushback, but I think we will prevail.”

Over recent months, Wagner has been accused of recruiting a large number of young men and women detained in Russian prisons and sending them to fight on the front lines in Ukraine in exchange for promises to reduce their sentences and offer them attractive salaries.

Prigozhin himself supervised the recruitment process until he appeared in a number of advanced fighting axes in Ukraine on September 26, 2022, and admitted in a video interview the deployment of elements of his group in Africa, Syria, and Latin America in particular, in his first admission after years of vehement denial since the founding of Wagner in May 2014.

In filmed footage, verified by the BBC, Yevgeniy Prigozhin can be seen addressing a large group of detainees.

Prigozhin told prisoners their sentences would be commuted in exchange for service with his group.

The video would confirm long-running speculation that Russia hopes to boost its forces by recruiting convicts.

While Russian law does not allow commutation of prison sentences in exchange for mercenary service, Prigozhin insisted that “nobody goes back behind bars” if they serve with his group.

“If you serve six months [in Wagner], you are free,” he said. But he warned potential recruits against desertion and said, “if you arrive in Ukraine and decide it’s not for you, we will execute you.”

He also informed prisoners of Wagner’s rules banning alcohol, drugs, and “sexual contacts with local women, flora, fauna, men—anything.”

Hence, press reports stated that Wagner would apply the same thing to women who wish to participate in the invasion of Ukraine.

Russia’s total prison population has fallen by nearly 23,000 as President Vladimir Putin personally urges more to be sent to the front.

The media documented the killing of about 500 Russian prisoners during the battles in Ukraine after they “volunteered” as mercenaries in return for high salaries and, most importantly, freedom after the war.

 

Soviet Experience

Returning to the historical recruitment of women by Russia, female shooters were recognized for the first time for their combat skills in World War II (1939-1945) after about 800,000 women served in the Soviet Armed Forces as snipers, pilots, and machine gunners, while a large number of them in medical units.

At that time, most societies were still starkly divided on the basis of gender, with certain jobs seen as being for men only and others being for women only.

When it was noticed that the proportion of men joining the military decreased, many countries began to employ women in support roles, from producing ammunition to nursing to running military bases.

But the Soviets went further, calling on their young women not only to support the soldiers but to join the fight.

About a million women fought in the various branches of the Soviet Army, some nursing and supporting, as in other countries, but some piloting tanks, machine guns, and fighter planes.

Information confirm that 2,484 of them became snipers, and, remarkably, only about 500 among them had survived the war.

At that time, the sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko, who joined the 25th Rifle Division of the Red Army in June 1941, became famous and was later dubbed “Lady Death.”

It was said that this woman was able to snipe 309 Nazis during World War II as one of the most famous snipers in 1942.

 

Approval Votes

The nascent Russian plan to include female prisoners in the invasion of Ukraine comes at a time when Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has outlined a proposal to expand the country’s army to 1.5 million soldiers from the current 1.15 million.

During a televised meeting on December 21, 2022, Shoigu told Putin that an increase in the number was needed “to ensure that problems related to military security are resolved.”

Shoigu indicated that 695,000 of the combatants must be professional contract soldiers, in contrast to conscripts who serve compulsory military service.

Since December 12, 2022, Russia has launched a campaign of military recruitment of women to mobilize for the war in Ukraine to compensate for the huge military losses of units of the First Army Corps, according to a statement issued by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on December 12.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine said 28 women have already been recruited and sent for training by the Military Commissariat of the Kalininsky district of Donetsk.

With the continuation of the war, speculation often rose that Moscow would start recruiting women in its war against Ukraine.

It is noteworthy that the idea of recruiting Russian women in Ukraine is not the brainchild of Prigozhin alone, but was preceded by the army general, Vladimir Boldyrev.

Boldyrev pointed out, during an interview with the local URA website on October 28, 2022, “the possibility of women going to war, as Russia’s forces lost vast areas of land that were seized during the first days after the February 24 attack.”

Boldyrev, who served as Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces from 2008 to 2010, stressed that “if women are called up, there are many places where they can be used.”

He explained: “Women can become doctors, and the second is the communications centers in the rear, as well as the rear units such as food, clothing, repair, laundry, and workshops. This is their main place in wartime.”

The former Russian army commander pointed out that “a woman may be ready to participate in the struggle to serve the Russian motherland, but first and foremost, professionalism is required.”

He continued: “Specialists are called for their ability to carry out their tasks. Women must be in good health. In addition, they need endurance, self-sacrifice, courage, and loyalty to their cause and country.”

 

‘The Final Destination’

In addition to what General Boldyrev said, a member of the State Duma, Alexey Chepa, presented the Israeli army as a model where men and women serve on the front lines, according to Express.

State Duma deputy Tatyana Solomatina chose a different tone on the draft decision: “This is absolutely not about our Russian history. There is always a male warrior and a woman waiting for him, guarding the hearth.”

“Women have always taken a different defense,” she explained to URA on December 13, 2022. “Conscripting women should be Russia’s last resort.”

There has been no official word or confirmation from the Kremlin that women will be included in military service.

But Russian Defense Minister Shoigu confirmed the deployment of 82,000 reservists in Ukraine, while 218,000 are still receiving training.

The idea of potential female recruits comes as Russia struggles to recover from heavy losses in its ongoing war.

Field setbacks and Moscow’s attempts to hold the line in parts of southern and eastern Ukraine that it still occupies and claims belong to it forced the Kremlin to provide military recruitment and increasingly rely on mercenaries from the Wagner forces, aspiring to exploit the war period to amplify its hidden military structure.

In August 2022, US Under Secretary of Defense Colin Kahl estimated in press statements that between 70,000 and 80,000 Russians had been killed or wounded in Ukraine since the start of the invasion.