By Galina Vaneeva
“As we can see from the experience of Natalia Malashenko, who is graduating from the Academy and will be the first female military pilot, our women have real opportunities to become officers,” notes Colonel Yuri Kokoshko, Deputy Head of the Military Academy’s Educational Work. “After graduation, Ms. Malashenko will have achieved total flight experience of over 220 hours. Of course, she wishes to fly on a serious aircraft: a strike fighter. We hope that she’ll succeed,” continues Mr. Kokoshko.
According to Mr. Kokoshko, over past several years, women have taken on a wider range of military roles, including those involving command, engineering, technical support, military-humanitarian, ideological, pedagogical and medical. Since 2002, young girls have been enrolled at the Military Academy’s Department of Communication and Automated Control Systems. Women also study at the military departments of the country’s civil universities. Most female officers work as military doctors, psychologists, translators and lawyers.
