“I read this collection of powerful and intimate letters from Ukrainian women as an antidote to the news and polemics that reduce lives to politics and statistics. These stories will move you and haunt you; they will uplift and inspire you; they will break your heart and then put it back together again as you listen to women struggling to survive yet another terrible man-made catastrophe.”

— Lana Wachowski, Award-winning writer/director of The Matrix

“Women and War shatters the traditional image of war. Since the Russian invasion of 2022, Ukrainian women have been more than witnesses - they are fighters, caretakers, fundraisers, and fierce pillars of resistance. This moving collection tells their stories and shows that true strength and courage know no gender.”

—Mstyslav Chernov, Oscar-winning director of 20 Days in Mariupol and author of The Dreamtime

“At first glance, Russia's war in Ukraine could be seen as yet another territorial invasion. For millennia, man has always wanted more. More land, more power. However, what is currently playing out in this country has many hallmarks of an ideological struggle, at the heart of which lies the fateful question: 'Do we have the right to choose what we want to be?' It is all about free will—be it political, cultural or sexual. This book is the story of Ukrainian women who have decided to choose what they want to become, and it will grip and inspire you from first page to last.”

—Stephen Fry, Award-winning actor/writer/director

“This is an extraordinary and essential book. The origins and consequences of the war in Ukraine have been analyzed in many ways: geopolitics, histories, cultures, and identities. The war is also, as all wars are, deeply personal. To make sense of the war is not just to explain it but to try to feel it through an act of empathy. In this book are personal stories of fear, hatred, and love in the face of injustice, cruelty, and violence. This book helps us understand the range of emotions that underpin the will of the Ukrainian people to fight, resist, and overcome. Only through the first-person narration of these Ukrainian women can we truly understand what this war means to the individuals who are living it.”

—Professor Rawi Abdelal, Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management, Harvard Business School

Aurélie Bros is a geopolitician who wrote her doctoral thesis on Gazprom's export strategy to Europe via Ukraine. She has taught at several universities, including Harvard University, where she led a research program on the impact of the global energy transition on traditional oil and gas producers, such as Russia and Iran. She has spoken at numerous conferences, including at MIT and the Université du Québec. In March 2022, Aurélie began coordinating an aid project launched by Handelsblatt (Germany’s largest financial newspaper) to support Ukrainian journalists. Since 2023, she has been writing books and screenplays.

Emily Channell-Justice

Director of the Temerty Contemporary Ukraine Program at the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University. She is an anthropologist who has been studying Ukrainian and conducting research in Ukraine since 2012. She has studied political activism and social movements among students and feminists during the Euromaidan mobilisation of 2013-2014. She is the author of the monograph Without a State: Self-Organisation and Political Activism in Ukraine and editor of the collection Decolonising Queer Experience: LGBT+ Narratives from Eastern Europe and Eurasia.

Oleksandra Matviichuck

Ukrainian lawyer, human rights activist, Chair of the Board of the Centre for Civil Liberties and member of the Board of the International Renaissance Foundation. She has been fighting for human rights since her childhood. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

Photographers:

Daria Biliak, a photographer and a filmmaker, originally from Kyiv. After graduating from the National University of Culture and Arts in Kyiv with a degree in film and television directing, she moved to Berlin to study at the Neue Schule für Fotografie. Since then, she has successfully participated in national and international projects.

Kristina Parioti, a photographer and philologist, originally from Mariupol. She lives in Germany since April 2022, where she photographs movie stars or models during the Fashion Week. She is politically active to raise awareness among the German population of the fate of her country.

Anastasia Potapova, a photographer, originally from Odesa, where she studied photography. Since March 2022, she has been living in Germany where she continues her career.

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Olga Stefanyshyna

Sofiia O.

Olena Bilozerska

Mariana Motrunych

Iryna Novokreshchenova

Mariia Lepokhina, aka Masha Syta

Olha Boravlova

Jerry Heil

Ira Solomatina

Mariia Cherpak

Sofiia Kropyvnytska

Yana Nakonechna

Adelina Mokliak

Olga Afanasyeva

Anastasiya Gruba

Iryna Chernychenko

Kristina Parioti

Anastasia Selevanova

Oksana L.

Olha Olshanska

Maryna Kamenskaya

Kateryna Vozianova

Taïsia Klochko

Oksana Korchynska

Yuliia Paievska, aka Tayra

Sophia Podkolsina

Meriam Yol

Dina Vong

Hannah Marholina

Kateryna Iakovlenko

Emily Channell-Justice

Oleksandra Matviichuk