She’s a younger mother with a grasp’s diploma in public coverage however spends her days and nights preventing on the frontlines in Ukraine with “stingers and switchblades.”
Andriana Arekhta, 34, was in New York Tuesday and away from the battlefields however nonetheless haunted by the visions — and smells — of the carnage in her war-torn nation.
The worst, she stated, is discovering corpses of youngsters and teenagers who’ve been tortured by Russians.
“Even when I’m within the forests, within the contemporary air, I can nonetheless scent the stench of burned homes and contemporary corpses,” she stated.
A number of the tales that stick along with her embrace an 11-year outdated boy who was whipped by a big group of Russian troopers in entrance of his mom — he survived however by no means spoke once more. She additionally stated she noticed a subject crammed with greater than 100 useless cows.
As Ukraine begins to liberate a few of its occupied territory from Russian invaders — who depart behind a path of mass graves and warfare crimes — Arekhta, a fight soldier, left the frontlines for Washington, DC.
Arekhta is one in every of 4 feminine fighters at present talking earlier than locations just like the appropriations, armed forces and overseas relations committees on behalf of Ukraine’s military, through which one in every of each 4 fighters is a lady.
Her message is straightforward.
“We want steel. We pay for it with our lives,” stated Arekhta, a particular forces weapons sergeant within the Ukrainian armed forces and head of the Ladies Veteran Motion.
She additionally desires to thank the US for the weapons the nation has already despatched.
“Your weapons are saving lives,” she stated.
However, she continues — as Putin threatens to begin drafting his residents — this isn’t nearly an unprovoked warfare of aggression between Russia and Ukraine.
“This can be a battle for democracy itself. If we fall, Europe is subsequent,” stated Arekhta.
What do they want? Extra “HIMARSes, ammunition, armored automobiles, tanks, fighter jets and floor air protection.”
Arekhta was simply 2-years outdated when the Soviet Union collapsed, however she had heard tales concerning the perils of Soviet imperialism — her personal grandmother had been despatched to Siberia throughout the Communist period, she says.
Arekhta, whose regular blue eyes have seen an excessive amount of, had accomplished her grasp’s and signed a contract to work in Japan when Russia invaded Crimea in 2014.fd
She labored as an activist after which joined her first fight battalion in Might 2014. Like a lot of her fellow troopers — she didn’t inform her mother and father. Then a New York Occasions photographer took her image.
“I wore a balaclava that lined my face. All you possibly can see had been my eyes, however my mom knew it was me,” she stated.
Arekhta met her husband, Max, on the frontlines.
“It was love at first sight,” she stated, including that she solely stopped preventing in 2015, when she was 5 months pregnant with their son, Makar.
For the following seven years, she labored as head of the Ukrainian veterans’ girls’s motion, as a United Nations advisor for veterans’ affairs and as a “navy spouse.”
Again then, girls weren’t formally allowed to be a part of a fight unit, so her paperwork listed her as a fight “seamstress.”
However when Russia invaded Ukraine final February, Arekhta was again on the frontlines, preventing along with her husband. One in all their greatest mates, a “brother in arms” and godfather to Makar, was killed.
“Now that I’m a mom, it’s more durable to be on the frontline. Earlier than it was simpler to battle. Now I’m answerable for my child,” she stated.
However now that she is a mom, she additionally has extra to battle for.
When Arekhta began preventing in 2014, she wore sneakers — there have been so few feminine fighters that they didn’t have boots or uniforms. That’s modified. Earlier this 12 months, for Valentine’s Day — simply earlier than Russia’s unprovoked full scale invasion — Arekhta’s husband gave her ammunition, which got here in helpful.
However they nonetheless want extra, in addition to armored automobiles.
“We name it the Toyota and Mitsubishi warfare. We want Hummers, or any form of armored automobiles. They save lives,” she stated.
Arekhta carries a photograph of her cute son along with her on her telephone, and she or he calls him day-after-day — when she will be able to. He’s along with her mother and father in western Ukraine and realizing that he’s secure is a part of what fuels her preventing spirit.
“I’m preventing for him, and he’s doing his half, baking cookies for the troopers,” she stated with a smile.
Regardless of the hardship and witnessing insufferable crimes, Arekhta’s son brings a sure sweetness to the warfare.
“Makar requested for an ant farm for his birthday. However we had been in Kiev and there was a blockade,” Arekhta stated. “We made an ant farm however couldn’t get it to him, so we despatched images and movies.”
The entire battalion was concerned as Makar counted the variety of ants from afar.
As we walked in the direction of Washington Sq. Park, a younger Ukrainian approached. He informed Arekhta, in Ukrainian, that he’s elevating cash and sending provides to Ukraine. Then he thanked her for her service.
Clearly, gender equality nonetheless has an extended approach to go — within the US and Ukraine.
Nonetheless, she stated, “the warfare has modified the whole lot.”
“As a lady, you’ll want to work more durable, however we’re equal with our brothers in arms,” she stated, including that Ukraine will win — and rebuild itself from the ashes, for his or her kids.
However, she stated, winter is coming, and even with out Russian bombs, Ukrainians with out electrical energy will die from chilly and hunger.
“Please ship extra weapons. They may assist us finish the warfare sooner earlier than we lose much more younger women and men,” she stated.
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