Ukraine’s female partisans train for action behind enemy lines; Counteroffensive turns one month!

Olena Biletska is a staunch advocate for women’s education. But when the invasion happened, she flipped a switch and began training her students for resistance behind Russian lines.

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Olena Biletska was five months pregnant when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But she was not surprised. She had been preparing for this moment for years.As columns of troops began their approach towards Kyiv, she had a first thought: 

“I’m ready to kill some Russians.” 

Olena Biletska smiles at a shooting range in Kyiv, 2022. 

She is the founder of the Ukraine Women's Guard, which since 2014 has been a network to train women for warfare. More than 60,000 have passed through their classes.

As she made coffee the morning of the invasion, she launched her war plan: activate her legions of women across Ukraine by starting a prearranged chat room. Everyone jumped into action.

In the weeks before the invasion, they had been flooded with applications -- 10,000 women wanted to take their courses in urban survival, knife combat, and tactical medicine.

"We have women who can kill individuals with office supplies, you know," she said with a grin. "Like a pencil or a pen... it's not just guns or rifles, but the objects available in an office supplies store." 

Olena’s rifle sits in an apartment in Kyiv.

But they’re not merely focused on violence: this female-led resistance network is also putting psychological pressure on the enemy (see how below); evacuating Ukraine supporters from behind enemy lines; and providing help to Ukrainian intelligence, she said:

“The spirit of Ukrainian women is a phenomenal one because they hold the back line, and they still have the guts and will to go and help in the front line. Even themselves, they don't fully realize the nature of this, where this drive comes from, where this will and power comes from. These are the women I worked with. Most of them know a couple of languages -- higher education always -- not only a huge spirit, but also really cerebral."

A photo of a Ukrainian Women's Guard class, taken in 2022. 

She’s trying not only to train women but inspire them – not only to join the military, but to aspire to be officers. She calls them “Amazonians.”

"I know some women who, in 2014, they were 12 years old,” Biletska said. “They prepared so well, they're so motivated. The situation in society has changed so dramatically since 2014: now women are involved in the military at pretty much every stage." 

Olena’s healthy child was delivered in a free Kyiv on June 21st, 2022. 

She and her husband named their daughter Dana.

Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands. 

The capital city was the site of another serious barrage of drone attacks overnight, but Ukrainian forces claim that all drones were shot down. 

It was the 12th such nighttime air raid on Kyiv since the beginning of the month, according to The Guardian. 

Watch one such drone getting shot down here, via an advisor to the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs (click): 

My hot take: the real counteroffensive shaping operation is the ongoing effort to push Russia towards political instability. Putin, for his part, was forced this week to acknowledge that Russia was going through "difficult times.” 

While all eyes have been on the military counteroffensive that many analysts expect Ukraine to launch, the psychological, political and information warfare currently underway is an important prerequisite because concrete military gains could be limited. 

It’s something that the Ukraine Women’s Guard is at the center of as part of its resistance network: encouraging minority groups in Russia to rebel against the Kremlin, for example.

“We're still at the stage of forcing Russia to crumble. We still haven't finished with them,” Olena Biletska told me this morning at a coworking space twenty minutes outside of the Kyiv city center. ”If Russia does not collapse, it retreats a bit, rebuilds, and starts to do it all over again... It's absolutely clear to me that they have only one real intention. So Russia must collapse."

If you've followed the news this week, you'll know that anti-Putin fighters aligned with Ukraine launched a raid into Russia’s Belgorod region, causing chaos and instability as Russian officials scrambled to react.

The whole effort is part of a campaign to turn up the heat on Russian political leaders by creating psychological fear that their institutions themselves may not be secure. 

And it signals to anti-Putin Russians, especially minorities in the vast country, that the war has drained the Russian military of its ability to effectively act. 

Sowing this narrative of doubt also has tremendous effects on morale. As a former soldier with no shortage of ego, I can testify that there’s nothing more sapping to an individual’s self-confidence than waiting for something to happen after enduring minimal sleep for days on end. 

Emotions flare; convictions weaken; everything gets harder. 

And in this environment the Ukrainian government is ready to insert some trolling to further demoralize its enemy by mimicking Russian talking points at the beginning of the invasion: 

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Meanwhile we are moving boxes and securing our new apartment. It’s a hot spring day here in Kyiv — wish us luck with the stairs!

Some good personal news: after several weeks and aborted attempts, I finally got my hands on some delicious Vietnamese noodles. And when the pho finally arrived, it was a little extra. Short rib pho?

The Ukrainians are fancy with their food, almost everywhere.

I found that place that sold pho near the Kyiv cycling track, on a brilliant sunny Spring day in the capital city. 

Spotted: Bubble tea for sale near the Maidan, the Independence Square in Kyiv. 

Today’s Dog of War is this unnamed pug watching guard over a Blues Bar that serves Mexican food.

Stay safe out there!

Best,
Tim