An intimate, inspirational biography of Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko, age 28, a commander serving on the frontline of the Ukraine War and star witness to global history in the making.
In 2022, Lara Marlowe travelled to Ukraine to report for The Irish Times on the experiences of women in the military. It was there that she met Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko, who she described as ‘one of the most extraordinary people I have interviewed in 42 years of journalism’.
Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko was born on 18 July 1995 in Kyiv. She was in the ‘Female Squad’ of the 16th regiment of the Self-Defence Force during the Euromaidan protests. On 24 February 2022, Russia staged a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Mykytenko knew instantly that she would return to active duty and now serves as the commander of a frontline drone unit in a war that has no end in sight.
Mykytenko lives, full-time, in the heart of the Ukraine War. When her own father self-immolated on Maidan Square, Kyiv, to protest the Russian invasion, Yulia threw a press conference to explain to journalists around the world that he acted "in sound mind and in good conscience," and when she heard (via a two-way radio and from a half-mile away) that her own husband was fatally wounded at the frontlines, she did not stop fighting. In October 2022, she was awarded the Order for Courage by decree of the President of Ukraine.
Over a series of interviews, Lara Marlowe builds an intimate account of Mykytenko’s experiences on the frontline. The result is an urgent story of a country at war and an inspirational woman who continues to fight for its survival.
