A 68-year-old grandmother took up arms to fight against Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine.
The mother-of-three children and grandmother-to-five is from the town of Zhidaev close to city of Lviv in western Ukraine. The brave woman has been nicknamed ‘The Punisher’ after completing a military training alongside soldiers 40 years her younger.
She said, “I have lived here all my life and we survived the Nazi occupation and the Soviets, and I believe in standing up for what’s right and making sure we never see occupation again.
I wanted to set an example to show young people that no matter how old you are you can make a difference, and that was why I decided to sign up. We need to give them the message that Ukraine is a free country, and if they don’t like it, they can go back to Russia.”
Pensioner Ekaterina Bilyk decided to sign up after watching Russian-backed separatists violently clashing with pro-Ukraine fighters. Having finished her training and passing all the tests she says she is now ready to go to the front line.
During the first stage of the 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine, Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation after a crisis in the region, Russian military intervention, and an internationally criticized referendum.
Protests in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts escalated into an armed separatist insurgency. This led the Ukrainian government to launch a military counter-offensive against the insurgents, which resulted in the ongoing War in Donbass.
From late 2014, cities outside of the Donbass combat zone, such as Kharkiv, Odessa, Kiev and Mariupol, were struck by bombings that targeted pro-Ukrainian unity organizations
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