Author

Yaryna Chornohuz photo

Yaryna Chornohuz

Yaryna Chornohuz is a Ukrainian writer and poet, and since 2020 has served as a marine in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She is the author of three poetry collections and the recipient of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in literature (2024) as well as the Women in Arts. Literature Award (2024). For her military service, she has been awarded the Medal “For a Saved Life” (2022), the Honorary Badge of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, and the Medal “For Military Service to Ukraine.”

Articles

After six years at the front, here is what nobody tells you about being a woman at war

by Yaryna Chornohuz
This May will mark six years since I put on a military uniform and began serving in the same marine infantry unit — first as a combat medic in a reconnaissance platoon, and now as a strike drone operator. I have witnessed three distinct forms of war: the forgotten trench war, the large-scale war of maneuver, and the drone war. Over that time, after many combat operations and losses, much has changed within me. It is gratifying to see how attitudes toward women in the military have shifted duri