Maria Berlinska

He served as a captain in the 24th Mechanized Brigade, and deputy brigade commander for psychological support.

Mariia Serhiivna Berlinska, or Mariya Berlinsʼka (Марія Сергіївна Берлінська; born 1988) is a Ukrainian military volunteer and women's rights advocate.

Maria Berlinska was born in 1988, and grew up in a village near the city of Kamianets-Podilskyi, 400 km southwest of Kyiv.

Her parents were teachers; her father, Sergiy, taught history and literature, and her mother taught French.

Berlinska graduated from Kamyanets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University, and went for a master's degree in history at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, specializing in Jewish history.

In her spare time, Berlinska played guitar, and co-organized the annual Respublica (festival) music festivals with bands such as Lyapis Trubetskoy and Skryabin, using part of the profits to pay artists to decorate houses in Kamianets-Podilskyi.

Berlinska joined the Euromaidan protests on 22 November 2013 and stayed through the Ukrainian Revolution of 2014.

She compiled a database of the injured in hospitals, built barricades, delivered water and self-defence leaflets.

When she met with gender discrimination from male protesters, she gave speeches on women's rights.

Her leg was injured during the protests, and years later she used a walking stick.

She was also wounded with rubber bullets and hospitalized for bilateral otitis, sinusitis, and bronchitis due to the cold weather.

She was a participant in the Revolution of Dignity in February 2014 and subsequently volunteered for the war in Donbas as an aerial reconnaissance drone operator.

Returning from the front, Berlinska founded a free school to train other Ukrainian military volunteers in aerial reconnaissance.

In mid-2014, Berlinska sought to become involved in the war in Donbas.

She joined the Ukrainian Army's volunteer Aidar Battalion after being turned away by other volunteer units on the basis of gender.

With the aid of material on the internet, she trained in Kyiv as a pilot of aerial reconnaissance drones.

On 1 September, Berlinska left the academy and arrived in Shchastia, at the front, the next day.

Her military call sign was "Marie Curie".

Beginning in 2015, Berlinska partnered with other female volunteer soldiers to champion women's rights and integration into the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

She coordinated Invisible Battalion, a series of three reports on Ukrainian military women's recognition, reintegration, and harassment, and produced two films on women veterans in collaboration with women filmmakers, that received international attention.

This work is credited for a series of laws gradually granting women equality in the Ukrainian armed forces.

She is a co-founder of the Women's Veteran Movement non-governmental organization, a senior advisor for a program to reintegrate veterans into society, and recipient of multiple awards.

Berlinska completed her master's in 2015 after a break for the war.

In January 2015, Berlinska founded the Ukrainian Centre for Aerial Reconnaissance (Центр підтримки аеророзвідки).

This is a free training centre for Ukrainian volunteers, based at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and run by volunteer civilian instructors, teaching soldiers how to operate drones, topography, and meteorology in a three to four-week course with donated drones.

One of the volunteer teachers, an art director for a television channel, had originally taught Berlinska.

In 2015, Berlinska became the project coordinator for Invisible Battalion (Невидимий батальйон), a report examining the participation of women in the Ukrainian armed forces.

The title referred to the unknown role of women fighting for Ukraine in the war in Donbas.

The report, by Tamara Martsenyuk, Anna Hrytsenko, and Anna Kvit, was presented in Kyiv in December 2015, and was published in English and Ukrainian by UN Women and the Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal in 2016.

The report found that female soldiers were forbidden by law from holding military commands, did not have basic needs met, and, despite some women being in combat roles, were all categorized as support personnel.

As a result, female soldiers did not receive the same salaries, legal protections, compensation for injuries, post-combat trauma care, and opportunities for career advancement in the military as male personnel.

Berlinska's father also volunteered for the war in Donbas in 2016, but was initially turned down due to his age, 58, until Berlinska intervened on his behalf.

By November 2016, the school had trained about 150 soldiers.

One of the trainees was Yulia Tolopa, a female Russian volunteer, who assisted Berlinska with drone reconnaissance at the front in mid-2016.

Berlinska unsuccessfully went to court in November 2017 to prove her participation in hostilities as a volunteer to obtain moral satisfaction and to serve as an example.

The court ruled that she had proven her case, but then the Ministry of Defense appealed and won, since, despite witnesses and photo and video evidence, there were no written orders.

However, after this loss, Berlinska was contacted by Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak, who asked for a meeting.

Largely because of the report, the Ministry of Defence issued Decree 337, allowing women to officially serve as snipers, intelligence officers, and commanders of military hardware, and in 2017 opened up 62 combat positions to women.

In 2017, Berlinska organized and produced a documentary film also titled Invisible Battalion, profiling six female soldiers who served in the war in Donbass without being recognized for it: Yuliia Paievska, a paramedic; Yulia Matvienko, called "Belka", a sniper, officially listed as a medical assistant; Olena Bilozerska, another sniper, never officially enlisted; Oksana Yakubova, suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); Andriana Susak, who fought to retake Schastia while wearing a balaclava to hide her gender, and was officially listed as a seamstress; and Daria Zubenko, paramedic.

After this meeting the Ministry announced plans to increase its own funding for drones and to found its own aerial reconnaissance school in 2018.