Introduction
On August 29, Ukraine celebrates the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This day was established by the Decree of the President of Ukraine dated August 23, 2019 No. 621 to perpetuate the heroism of servicemen and volunteers who gave their lives for the Motherland. Preservation and worthy commemoration of the fallen defenders of Ukraine is the duty of the state and society.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, by order No. 616-r dated June 25, 2025, approved a plan of measures to mark this memorable date in 2025. The plan provides, in particular, for the development of thematic methodological and informational materials, and educational institutions are invited to use them during the first lesson in the 2025/26 academic year with the involvement of veterans.
The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance has developed such materials with an emphasis on the participation of women in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of our state.
After all, Ukrainian women have traditionally actively participated in the struggle - they took up arms, provided rear, saved children, protected families, passed on the memory of events and heroes. Many female servicemen have died in the modern war. Many of them have been awarded for their combat merits during the entire Russian-Ukrainian war, in particular, the anti-terrorist operation (ATO), the Joint Forces Operation (JFO) and after the full-scale invasion. Thus, 257 women have been awarded state awards during the ATO/JFO operations, 9 of them posthumously, more than 4,500 have received departmental and other awards.
Key messages
August 29 is the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. This date is associated with one of the most tragic episodes of the Russian-Ukrainian war before the full-scale invasion - the escape of Ukrainian soldiers from the encirclement near Ilovaisk.
The Russian-Ukrainian war began on February 20, 2014, and the battles for Ilovaisk in August of the same year became one of the culminating points of its initial stage, having a serious impact on both Ukrainian society and international relations in Europe.
The date of the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, was not chosen by chance. It was on this day in 2014 that Russian troops shot columns of Ukrainian soldiers during their escape from the encirclement near Ilovaisk. Ukrainian soldiers showed heroism and resistance to the enemy, but suffered heavy losses.
The tragic events unfolded in the fields of sunflowers, which were already ripening at the end of August. That is why the sunflower was chosen as the symbol of the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine. But the sunflower does not just remind us of the courage of our soldiers, but also symbolizes life.
In the sunflower fields in the "green corridor" under enemy fire, 366 Ukrainian soldiers died, 429 were wounded, 158 went missing, and 300 were captured. Ilovaisk is not only a tragedy, but also a page of Ukrainian indomitability, it is an act and feat of the Ukrainian military. Let us remember that despite the losses and the enemy's deception, our soldiers did not surrender, but continued to break out of the trap and continue the fight.
This day also reminds us of the treachery and treachery of the Russian aggressor, that negotiations with terrorists and murderers do not bring an end to hostilities, but a mortal danger. Today, the civilized world understands that the Russians cannot be trusted.
On this day, we remember those who died in the Ilovaisk tragedy, as well as tens of thousands of those who have fallen since 2014 in the modern Russian-Ukrainian war, among whom are many women. In general, in different ways at different times, they stood up for Ukrainian statehood. They are different in origin, age, education, profession, but all of them are united by patriotism and concern for the social and political processes and events that took place on Ukrainian lands in the 20th–21st centuries. They fought and continue to fight every day for the right of Ukrainians to their own state and identity.
During this year's events, we propose to pay special attention to the fate of women in war. Through the prism of their heroism, volunteerism, and daily care for loved ones and relatives, the criminal nature of war and racism as a misanthropic ideology is best revealed.
Women's war stories best reveal the essence of war as a human tragedy – the tragedy of an individual, family, community, city, or village.
Since the beginning of the war, the number of women in the Ukrainian army has increased significantly, and they are playing an increasingly important role, demonstrating high professionalism and courage in various positions on the front line and in the rear. On an equal footing with men, they serve as intelligence officers, scouts, snipers, combat medics, drivers, patrol officers, provide communications and logistics, and resist in occupied territories. As of the beginning of 2025, more than 70,000 women are serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which is the highest number of women in the armies of the world, including NATO armies.
Ukraine has been waging an armed struggle for independence and territorial integrity against the Russian aggressor for over 11 years. For this we are paying an extremely high price. But while it continues, we cannot know the exact number of those killed, name everyone by name, or tell all the heroic or tragic stories. However, we are confident that Ukrainian society will make every effort so that the fallen Heroes and Heroines remain in our memory not as an abstract image or number, but receive due respect. So that our memory of them is alive, bright, and effective.
While martial law and constant threats persist, we cannot gather on August 29 for large-scale rallies in the squares of our settlements, but we can come individually to the burial sites and pay our respects, we can support their families not only with attention, kind words and care, but also with specific actions.
After the victory, we will find and cherish other traditions of remembering the fallen Defenders. We are already naming and will continue to name streets in their honor, planting memorial squares, establishing named scholarships, holding various sports, patriotic, and cultural and artistic events. We already have places of memory and memorial objects in public space. Sectors of military burials, new military memorials, and the National Military Memorial Cemetery are also being created, where the fallen (deceased) defenders will be buried with honors. We remember and will remember.
Historical background
The beginning of the war. In 1991, Ukraine regained its independence. However, the Russian Federation did not give up on attempts to regain control over Ukraine. The pressure intensified with the coming to power in Russia of Vladimir Putin, a former employee of the repressive KGB agency. His system of state governance is based on the cult of the leader, his monopoly on power, curtailment of freedom of speech and the use of “manual” mass media (dis)information, the expansion of law enforcement agencies with their repressive and punitive apparatus and the persecution of dissenters. The Kremlin also returned to the practice of “collecting land”. It began with the conquest of Chechnya, and continued with the incitement of separatist movements in the former republics – Moldova, Georgia, and the provocation of the conflict on the Ukrainian island of Tuzla. Finally, in 2014, the racists launched a hybrid aggression against Ukraine. Thus, the world has once again faced a regime that seeks to redistribute state borders and is heading towards a new kind of totalitarianism.
The modern Russian-Ukrainian war began after the Revolution of Dignity, the main demand of which was the return of Ukraine to the European path of development and the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union. The tragic price of the confrontation on the Maidan was the Heavenly Hundred - 107 dead heroes, different in age, gender, education, from different parts of Ukraine and abroad. The frightened Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia, from where he called on Putin to carry out a military invasion of Ukraine to restore his power.
The Russian Federation took advantage of the temporary power vacuum in Ukraine and resorted to active aggression - in Crimea, the so-called "little green men" (Russian military personnel without insignia) seized administrative buildings, military units, and other strategic facilities.
The armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine began on February 20, 2014, when the first cases of violation by the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation of the procedure for crossing the state border of Ukraine in the Kerch Strait area and the use of its military formations deployed in Crimea in accordance with the Agreement between Ukraine and the Russian Federation on the status and conditions of the presence of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine dated May 28, 1997, to block Ukrainian military units were recorded, contrary to the international legal obligations of the Russian Federation. At the initial stage of the aggression, the personnel of individual Russian armed formations did not have identification marks. Therefore, in February-March 2014, with the seizure of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, the modern Russian-Ukrainian war began. This was stated by the Ukrainian Parliament in its statement “On repelling the armed aggression of the Russian Federation and overcoming its consequences” dated April 21, 2015, and by international courts. In particular, the European Court of Human Rights confirmed that the Russian Federation established control over Crimea on February 27, 2014.
In March–April 2014, Russian special services and saboteurs began to destabilize the situation in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine, organizing anti-Ukrainian rallies and attempts to create illegal quasi-state entities. In response, patriotic Ukrainian forces resisted with mass actions aimed at preserving the territorial integrity of the state.
In early April, Russia began implementing the “Novorossiya” plan – the seizure of the territory of the eastern regions of Ukraine. After the proclamation of the so-called “people’s republics”, detachments of Russian saboteurs with military equipment and weapons arrived in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions unhindered and en masse. However, the plan to quickly repeat the “Crimean scenario” failed. Combat-ready units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, the National Guard and volunteer formations broke the aggressor’s intention. In the summer of 2014, Russian hybrid forces in eastern Ukraine suffered significant losses in personnel, weapons, and military equipment. On August 23–25, eight battalion tactical groups of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation entered the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. 70 Russian military units gathered from across the federation were involved in the offensive, which began a new round of escalation of the Russian Federation’s aggression.
Battles for Ilovaisk. In May-August 2014, Ukrainian units conducted more than 40 operations - liberated two-thirds of the occupied territories, more than 100 settlements in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. The ATO forces gradually took control of the situation, localized some groups, narrowed the ring of isolation, and moved it away from the state border. It became possible to block the Russian occupiers in the areas of Donetsk, Makiivka, Horlivka, and Luhansk and divide them into separate cells and create the prerequisites for a successful conclusion to the armed conflict in Eastern Ukraine.
Since August 11, 2014, the ATO Headquarters has been planning an operation to defeat the main forces of the illegal armed formations of the “DPR” and “LPR” in the cities of Yenakiieve, Horlivka, Pervomaisk, Stakhanov, and to complete the clearing of Ilovaisk, Donetsk region, from terrorists and take it under control. This would allow blocking illegal armed units in Donetsk from the south and would facilitate the advance of the ATO forces to liberate Donetsk.
Therefore, Ilovaisk was a strategically important city in Donbas. The fight for it continued from the beginning of August 2014, in parallel with the assault on Savur-Mohyla, Anthracite, and Krasny Luch (now Khrustalny).
The first attack on Ilovaisk was carried out by units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine together with volunteer battalions, in particular the units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Dnipro-1, Shakhtarsk, Azov, Myrotvorets, Kherson, Svityaz, Ivano-Frankivsk and the Donbas battalion of the National Guard of Ukraine on August 6–7. Within 3 days, the volunteer battalions «Azov», «Donbas» and «Shakhtarsk» with the support of units of the 51st Motorized Rifle Brigade and the 40th Armored Cavalry Regiment again went on the assault. And despite its unsuccessful result, they were still able to set up 4 checkpoints around the city (actually taking Ilovaisk into a semi-encirclement and creating favorable conditions for further active actions) and hold them until the end of August.
On August 18, Ukrainian security forces entered Ilovaisk. They managed to take control of most of the city. But it was extremely difficult to hold their positions due to heavy mortar and artillery fire from the Russian army using the Grad, Smerch, and Uragan systems.
Ultimately, realizing that the plans to seize Ukrainian lands were collapsing, the Russian leadership succeeded in introducing regular troops into the territory of eastern Ukraine.
According to the materials of the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine investigating the Ilovaisk tragedy, on the night of August 23-24, 2014, the largest invasion of the Russian Armed Forces took place by nine battalion-tactical groups: 3,500 personnel; up to 60 tanks; up to 320 BMD (BMP); up to 60 guns; up to 45 mortars; 5 ATGMs, which entered the administrative territory of Ukraine in the area of the settlements of Pobeda - Berestovo, Starobeshiv district, Donetsk region, with a further march to the Ilovaisk district. Tactical signs were removed or masked in advance on Russian military equipment and identification marks of Ukrainian units were applied.
By August 28, 2014, Russian regular troops and militants surrounded the ATO forces (troops of sector “B” and the battalions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine “Dnipro-1”, “Myrotvorets”, “Svityaz”, “Kherson”, “Ivano-Frankivsk”, and the National Guard “Donbas”). The Ukrainian command expected to unblock them with the help of ATO force reserves. However, the units designated for this purpose were staffed mainly with recently mobilized fighters without proper training.
After negotiations, the Russian military command provided guarantees for the safe withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the surrounded Ilovaisk. The movement of the two columns began on August 29. However, the Russians violated the agreements - they shot our columns from ambushes. As a result of the treachery of the occupier, the Ukrainian army lost 366 soldiers killed, 429 were wounded, 158 went missing, and 300 were captured. The invasion of Russian troops and the Ilovaisk tragedy forced the Ukrainian side to agree to the terms of a ceasefire as a step towards victory over the occupiers. Therefore, on September 5, the Minsk Tripartite Agreement (the so-called Minsk Protocol) was signed.
Ukrainian women in war. Modern Defenders of Ukraine stand in the same row with many generations of fighters for freedom and independence. Even the struggle of Ukrainian feminists for rights was closely connected with the defense of the national question and the struggle for the state. And during the First World War, women not only worked in hospitals, collected aid for the front, but also gained their first military experience. For example, Olena Stepaniv became the first Ukrainian officer in the Austrian and Ukrainian Galician armies, and led a women's platoon in the Ukrainian Sich Riflemen Legion.
However, no less significant in the history of the struggle of Ukrainians for state independence against the Russian occupier was the participation of women in the Ukrainian Central Council, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Underground women, intelligence officers, signalmen, members of marching groups, Red Cross and propaganda referents - their participation in the Russian resistance became a real phenomenon of the national liberation struggle of the Second World War. In the Red Army, they also served in aviation and the navy, in infantry and cavalry, intelligence, and communications. In the rear, they were involved in work at military enterprises, in agriculture, and in the construction of anti-tank ditches, trenches, and dugouts. There were also prisoners of war and Ostarbeiters. In short, during the war years, women acted in various guises: wife, mother, keeper of memory, partisan, and servicewoman. By the way, it was at that time that the linguistic equivalents of male professions appeared in the feminine gender: machine gunner, tanker, machine gunner, scout.
Another topic is the participation of women in the dissident movement of the 1950s–1980s. Some of them had to remain in the shadows, supporting male human rights activists, while others joined in active nonviolent resistance to the totalitarian machine, becoming founders of the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, the Union of Ukrainian Women, and other organizations.
Appendix 1.
Women's stories
These stories tell of women who are on the front lines defending Ukraine in modern warfare, rescuing the wounded, volunteering, or otherwise contributing to Victory. The Institute is sharing these stories through the #FightForUkraine section on social media. Here are some examples.
Yaryna Chornoguz is a Ukrainian poet, volunteer, servicewoman, marine, combat medic, intelligence officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, laureate of the Taras Shevchenko National Prize of Ukraine in 2024. She graduated from Mohylyanka and entered military service. In 2019, she joined the team of the volunteer medical battalion "Hospitaliers". Later, after undergoing additional training, she became a combat medic in the Marine Corps.
Currently, Yaryna is part of the team of the 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps as a platoon combat medic. But she also works as a scout, having completed a course in the military use of UAVs from the Aerial Reconnaissance Support Center.
According to Forbes magazine, Yaryna Chornoguz was included in the list of the top 50 female leaders of Ukraine in 2023.
During the war, she wrote a collection of poems «How the Military Circle Bends,» which she published in 2020. She dedicated it to her beloved Mykola Sorochuk, who died on the front line from a sniper’s bullet. The collection was awarded a prize in the literary competition of the Smoloskyp publishing house. Now, a second book has been published with texts that Yara wrote during the full-scale invasion, «Dasein: Defense of Presence.».
Yaryna met the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Luhansk Oblast. She was in many "hot" areas. In particular, she participated in the liberation of Lyman-Yampol in Donetsk Oblast: "The first feeling when I walked through the liberated territory was a strengthening of faith in victory. If we liberated this, we will be able to liberate everything else.".
«When the forces of the racists significantly outnumbered us quantitatively and technically, and we lived every day as if it were our last, I simply understood that we did not have the option to be timid, because the shield of the state rests on this,» says Yaryna Chornohuz.
In 2020, she was a combat medic under contract, and since 2021, she has been on the front lines as a combat medic and scout in the 140th Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps of Ukraine. She is raising her daughter Orysia, who understands her mother's choice and awaits her victory. In 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the combat medic the medal "For a Life Saved.".
This story is about Nataliya Babeush, a Mariupol resident, who spent two months in the Azovstal dungeon preparing food for children and adults from water and dry rations.
Natalia worked for many years at the Azovstal plant as a boiler operator. During the full-scale Russian invasion, when it became unsafe at home, she and her husband moved to the factory bunker. They lived underground at a depth of 3–4 meters for two months before being evacuated. About 40 people, including eight children, were in the bunker with them. The youngest child was two years old.
Natalia volunteered to cook food for everyone.
A 35-year-old woman began looking for a job to somehow survive in the bunker. She realized that in order to survive, she had to unite. "I don't have children, so I decided that I was best suited to the role of a cook. My husband is an orphan, and I didn't want another child to lose their mother. So I told people that as long as I was alive, I would cook," she later said.
Two of Natalie's makeshift kitchens were destroyed by bombs. One was in the open air, and only a saucepan survived, and the other was under the roof, but it also flew there. So later the woman started cooking in the dungeon, on the stairs. From the supplies she had, she had a half-burnt saucepan and something that looked like a barbecue.
So that even small children could call her, Natalia came up with the nickname "Aunt Soup." It stuck.
Food had to be saved considerably. From the reserves there were cereals, which some families had grabbed, and what was in the dry rations. Therefore, they mainly ate soup - once a day. The "brand" soup, on which the people from Natalya's bunker survived, had a simple recipe: for 30 liters of water from industrial tanks, one or two cans of dry rations. For dinner, there was only tea.
What Natalya was most afraid of was one day telling her children that they had nothing to eat. «They drew pictures of food for me and dreamed of pizza and French fries,» recalls Nataliya Babeush. To support them, she tried to fulfill their children’s wishes for food that was unavailable during the war. Once, when four potatoes were found in the bunker, Nataliya fried some potato chips for the children to replace the French fries.
The woman invented recipes from whatever was at hand to lift her spirits and help her get through the hell of the siege. She took those children's drawings from the bunker during the evacuation and still keeps them.
The first thing Natalya ate after leaving Azovstal was a slice of bread and butter. She wants to write a survival guide that could help people whose lives have been disrupted by war.
Valentina Makarenko. A volunteer and vocalist who, after the death of her father, went to the front and herself died in battle. She was born in the city of Kropyvnytskyi, Kirovograd region. In 2015, she moved to Kyiv with her family. Since childhood, she was fond of music and wanted to connect her life with it. Valentina began to study vocals at the age of 5, and in adulthood she became a student at the Kyiv National University of Culture and Arts, where she received an education in pop vocals.
Later, the young vocalist also entered the Kyiv Municipal Academy of Variety and Circus Arts. At the same time, she worked as a craftswoman in a beauty salon and even wanted to develop her own methodology for development through music for children with special educational needs.
However, all her life plans were put on hold with the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. When Valentina's father, Vitaly Filipov, went to the front as a volunteer under the call sign "Paton", she became an active volunteer - helping him and his brothers with everything they needed.
After receiving news of her father's death near Balakliya in the Kharkiv region in the fall of 2022, Valentyna decided to continue his work and join the Defense Forces of Ukraine. She created the Paton charitable foundation, took courses in tactical military medicine, and in the summer of 2023 joined the 4th Separate Tank Brigade as a machine gunner.
On January 9, 2024, while performing a combat mission in the Kharkiv region, Valentyna Makarenko died from a direct hit by an anti-tank guided missile in the vehicle in which she and her comrades were returning from positions.
The defender was buried at the Forest Cemetery in Kyiv, not far from her father. Valentina will forever be 23 years old.
Maryna Hrytsenko (call sign "Mary"). A combat medic, a member of the Plastniki, in civilian life the chief curator of the funds of the Chernihiv Regional Art Museum named after Hryhoriy Galahan. She died at the front on August 7, 2025. She was 39.
She is originally from Ripki, in the Chernihiv region. She was fond of music and Ukrainian historical rituals. She joined the Scouts in 2021 with her daughter Yulia. She was the clerk of the Chernihiv village. Since February 2023, Marina became a rifleman-medic in the 3rd separate assault brigade. Junior sergeant. She participated in the battles for the Kharkiv region. In May 2025, she was awarded the Order "For Courage" of the 3rd degree as a medic of the 1st assault battalion of the brigade. For "proving her devotion and bravery, saving her brothers on the front line.".
She died along with two of her comrades from an enemy drone while performing a combat mission.
Appendix 2.
Memories of the Defenders of Ukraine
Since March 2022, the Institute has been mentioning civilian cultural, spiritual, and sports figures, including women, who became victims of Russian aggression, in materials on social networks under the heading "Russia Kills." Here are some of them.
Viktoriya Roshchina is a journalist who was tortured in Russian captivity. «It was important to her to talk about Ukrainians in the occupied territories. She could not be stopped, restrained. She was completely devoted to journalism,» recalls Sevgil Musayeva, editor-in-chief of Ukrainska Pravda.
Vika was a journalist and presenter at Ukrainian Radio, UA:First, wrote for Krym.Realiya, Censor.net, Ukrainska Pravda, Radio Svoboda. For the past four and a half years, she has worked at Hromadske, producing dozens of reports and streams from government buildings and courtrooms. In particular, she broadcast live the release of National Guard member Vitaliy Markiv from captivity, the return of Oleg Sentsov, Mykola Karpiuk, and other political prisoners. She created a series of documentaries, where she touched on such topics as juvenile delinquency and the consequences of imprisonment, post-traumatic stress disorder, and the stories of Ukrainian sailors who spent several months in Russian captivity before the full-scale invasion.
She encountered a full-scale invasion in Shchastya in Luhansk Oblast. She simply had a feeling that something was about to start, so she arrived in advance. Later, she visited occupied Energodar, talked with residents of Volnovakha, Mariupol, Melitopol, and published reports from Hulyaipol and Zaporizhia, which were under constant shelling.
On July 27, 2023, Victoria crossed the Ukrainian-Polish border. She planned to cross into Russia from Poland and then into the occupied territories. However, on August 3, contact with her was lost. Later, the journalist's name appeared on the lists of prisoners of war.
She was being prepared for an exchange. In mid-September, Victoria was supposed to return home, but she did not make it. According to the official version of the Russian side, she died during a transfer from Taganrog to Moscow. According to preliminary information, this happened on September 19, but Victoria's father was informed about this only on October 10. The journalist was buried on August 8, 2025 at the Baikovo cemetery in Kyiv.
Another journalist is Tetyana Kulyk. She was one of the most diligent and best students in her class at the National University of Culture and Arts. «Tanya was my student. Since my first year, when the students were my age. That’s why we were friends outside of pairs, we went for coffee together,» recalls TV presenter Anzhelika Rudnytska of those times.
She loved her family: her husband, a talented oncologist surgeon, Pavlo Ivanchov, and her 18-year-old student daughter.
Tetyana knew how to work in the frame and outside it. In 2015-2017, she was the deputy director of the TO "Khreshchatyk, 26", then the editor-in-chief of public and journalistic programs and the host of the "Central Channel", the World Broadcasting Service of Ukraine, and the TV presenter of the Public Broadcasting Service. Her "hobby" was conversations with interesting people in the studio. It is difficult to count how many politicians, actors, public figures and simply extraordinary people Tetyana Kulyk "illuminated" with her questions.
She hated war. Although it was the war that gave her an acquaintance with fantastic people. "Nation of the Invincible" was the name of her latest project, which Tetyana conceived and led while serving as the editor-in-chief of the Main Multimedia Editorial Office of Ukrinform. Not so long ago, as part of this project, she recorded a conversation with the head of the GUR, Kirill Budanov.
She had many more creative plans that remained unrealized. Because on the night of February 25-26, a Russian bomber hit her house, turning the cozy home into a pile of ruins. In the morning, rescuers found the bodies of Tatyana and her husband under the rubble.
Tetyana Kulyk became the 98th media worker on the list of those killed during the Russian-Ukrainian war (seven of them were foreigners).
Volunteer from Bucha Zhanna Kameneva. She started traveling to Donbas, to the combat zone, in 2014. Together with her friends, she took care of a boarding school in Hirske in Luhansk Oblast, regularly collected gifts, and went to see children on holidays. She reached the fighters in the hottest spots.
«She could get everything, took help where no one else went, had the ability to radiate optimism and kindness,» her colleagues recalled.
On February 24, 2022, Zhanna met in Bucha. She took her two children to visit friends in Zhytomyr and returned to Bucha on February 26. Her husband, Gennady Kamenev, who joined the defenders of the Kyiv region, tried to persuade his wife to return to her children. But she was determined: "I want to be with you. We have to give ammunition to someone.".
Zhanna could not leave people in trouble without help - she brought food and medicine. Until March 4, the volunteer took Buch residents in her minibus to Irpin, from where evacuation trains departed.
On March 5, Zhanna managed to tell her husband that Russian equipment had entered their and neighboring streets in Bucha. After that, the woman decided to get out of the city. Her neighbor Maria Ilchuk and colleague Tamila Mishchenko and her 14-year-old daughter, an artist, were driving with her in the car. The minibus had the words «Children» and «Evacuation» on it, and a sheet hung from the window like a white flag. But this did not stop the Russians - at the corner of Vokzalna and Yablunska streets, the car was shot with a machine gun, then they fired at it with a hand-held anti-tank grenade launcher.
Relatives searched for Zhanna and her passengers for a month. Their fate became known only after Bucha was released. The burned-out car bore little resemblance to Zhanna's minibus - the blue body had turned completely white from the fire. But after checking the license plates and VIN code, her husband Gennady realized whose car it was. The completely burned remains of four people were found among the charred remains.
In 2023, on the anniversary of the liberation of Bucha from Russian occupation, Zhanna Kameneva was awarded the Order of Courage, 3rd degree. Her burnt-out car, in which she never reached the place of rescue, was transferred to Berlin as an exhibit of the exhibition "Bucha's Testament.".
Zhanna is survived by two children, 12 and 15 years old.
Appendix 3.
All-Ukrainian action in memory of "Sunflowers"«
The celebration of the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine on August 29 was not chosen by chance, because it was on this day in 2014, during the Russian-Ukrainian war and the Ilovai operation, that the Ukrainian group of troops broke through the Russian encirclement, where mass heroism of volunteers and military personnel was manifested, and many Ukrainian soldiers died. Those tragic events of the Russian-Ukrainian war unfolded in the east of Ukraine, precisely in the fields of sunflowers that were already ripening. That is why the sunflower was chosen as the symbol of the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine.
We invite Ukrainians to join the annual “Sunflowers” commemoration event – to make stylized sunflowers from fabric and place them on clothing on the left side of the chest. We urge children and youth to be involved in creating symbolic sunflowers in order to promote a respectful attitude towards the defenders of Ukraine from a young age and to explain the significance of this day for our country.
It is proposed to make a sunflower from 15 yellow fabric petals 23 millimeters high and 12 millimeters wide. The upper edge of the petal is pointed. The lower edges of each are fixed on a large 40-millimeter circle of black felt with a thickness of 1.5 millimeters. In the middle of the sunflower, place a smaller black felt circle 1 millimeter thick on top of the yellow petals. The sunflower is fixed on a base for badges in the form of foam (clips).
Video with instructions for making the "Sunflower" symbol by by reference.
We call on Ukrainians on the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, to complement their clothing with a sunflower - a symbol of the memory of the defenders of Ukraine, and thereby demonstrate their attention, honor and respect.
Also, in accordance with the “Rules for Broadcasting on TV and Radio Channels on Days of Mourning (Sorrow, Mourning) and Days of Remembrance”, approved by the decision of the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting dated July 23, 2015 No. 1146, registered with the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on August 11, 2015 No. 967/27412, on the Day of Remembrance, television and radio organizations are obliged to place on the screen during the telecast a corresponding stylized image or a burning candle that is appropriate to the relevant event. The corresponding stylized image for the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine is a sunflower - it is it that must be placed on the screen during the telecast on this day.
Appendix 4.
Materials of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance on women's stories in the struggle for the Independence of Ukraine
«"Ukraine is a country of heroes"». A social video created by the Institute for the Day of Remembrance of Defenders of Ukraine together with the NGO "Union of Mothers and Wives of Defenders of Ukraine" to emphasize the importance of honoring the military who sacrificed their lives for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. The video emphasizes the need to daily honor the fallen defenders with a minute of silence and reminds society that the war has been going on since 2014, and the life of each and every one of the fallen is the price of our freedom.
The video was created by order of the Association of Mothers and Wives of Defenders of Ukraine in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. Video production: Young&Hungry Production. Illustrator – Maksym Palenko.
Project “Women who died for Ukraine” – created by the Women's Veterans Movement with the support of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. In 9 videos, participants of the Women's Veterans Movement talk about their fallen sisters, with whom they were friends, studied military affairs, served together in the Armed Forces, and participated in hostilities in Eastern Ukraine. They not only recall what their fallen sisters were like, but also try to explain why and how they made such a choice - to voluntarily go to defend their people, from the perspective of a woman who went to war.
Calendars and cry “Ukrainian Women of the 20th Century.” A project about exceptional women in the history of Ukraine. Oksana Meshko, Halyna Mazepa, Evdokia Dolya, Sofia Okunevska, Olena Teliga, Maria Bachynska-Dontsova and others in various ways influenced the formation and development of the Ukrainian state, its culture, education and science in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
Institute publications:
«"Girls cutting their locks" / "Girls cutting their locks"» in Ukrainian , in English. The book contains the memoirs of 25 female soldiers about combat operations of different years in Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the liberation of Ukrainian cities and villages from the occupiers, fellow soldiers, local residents, military life, as well as reflections on the position of women in the Ukrainian army during different periods of the war. The stories, recorded from November 2017 to July 2018 by war correspondent Yevheniya Podlebnaya, are supplemented with photographs from the combat zone.
«"Testimony of the War. Chernihiv and Horodnyan Communities"» – are fragments of oral history interviews with residents of the Horodnyanska community and the city of Chernihiv, who survived the occupation and siege in March 2022. The recordings are part of the partnership project "Strengthening Social Cohesion and Establishing a Social Contract in the War-Torn Chernihiv Region", which has been operating in Ukraine since November 2022 in partnership with the Institute with the peacekeeping organization PAX-Netherlands, public organizations "Ukrainian Center for Nonviolent Communication and Reconciliation "Space of Dignity", "Dobrochyn Center". Based on the testimonies, a street exhibition was created in which the materials are presented in a wider format.
Information materials for the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine, who died in the struggle for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine (Ministry of Veterans Affairs of Ukraine)
White Paper on the Anti-Terrorist Operation in Eastern Ukraine (2014-1016)
Selection of materials on the historical context of the Russian-Ukrainian war. In particular, it includes interviews within the framework of the project "Historical Resistance" with historians Larisa Yakubova about racism and Olena Styazkina about the war in Ukraine and the collapse of empires; articles: Timothy Snyder "Why Ukraine's victory is important for the world", Igor Kromf "How the Putin regime uses the myth of the "Great Fatherland", Vitaliy Baka "Why is the deportation of Mariupol residents a repetition of history?" and others.
Columns on the Institute's pages on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram channel "History and Memory"): "Heroic Stories of the Russian-Ukrainian War" (#fightforukraine), "Russia Kills" (#росия_вбивающе), "Russia Destroys Ukrainian Cultural Heritage" (#russiaruinsculture), "Lost Childhood.".
Information materials to the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine and to the 5th anniversary of the liberation of the cities of eastern Ukraine from Russian occupation «"We are giving back what is ours"» contains sections: historical context of the war, key messages, chronology of the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war (timeline of the war), regulatory and legal acts of Ukraine regarding the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, international legal acts adopted in response to Russian aggression against Ukraine, terminological dictionary, memoirs of participants in the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Brochure "2014: The Beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian War"« – a project based on the Institute’s information materials for the 5th anniversary of the beginning of the Russian Federation’s armed aggression against Ukraine. Contains two narrative strands: the historical context and prerequisites of the Russian aggression of 2014; the chronology of the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, from the occupation of Crimea to the signing of the Minsk Agreement.
Series of short documentaries «"Women who died for Ukraine"» is a project of the Women's Veterans Movement with the support of the Institute.
«"History of war sites"» – video recording of the memories of people who survived the occupation and witnessed war crimes.
Requiem film "Names on the Walls"«.
The materials were prepared by employees of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance: Olena Okhrimchuk, Hanna Baykenich