Almost 43,000 women are now serving in Ukraine's military, according to the country’s Defense Ministry. They volunteered to fight, as unlike with men, there is no obligatory conscription for women in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent's journalists Francis Farrell and Olena Zashko followed a group of Ukrainian military medics as they journeyed from the heat of battle in war-torn Ukraine to the serene forests of Sweden for a short mental health retreat.