Ukrainian Women fighting on the front lines

"There is a job called defending the fatherland, and this is what I do now," she said.Plaksyuk is one of only two women in her unit. Her gender “does not play a role,” she said, adding that her male subordinates “fully respect” her because of her professionalism. "I am where I am because I strove for it," she said.More than 1,100 kilometers to the west, in the town of Ustyluh on Ukraine's border with Poland, 26-year-old border guard Alina Panina carries out customs checks with the help of a spaniel sniffer dog.