‘Mocking’: The reaction of Ukrainian women troops after marching with heels on Ukrainian news

The images from the defense ministry show critics showing female soldiers marching in high heels.

Ukrainian authorities have suffered accidents in official images after showing female soldiers wearing heels for next month’s military parade.

Ukraine is preparing a parade to celebrate 30 years of independence after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and the defense ministry on Thursday released photos of women wearing tired mid-heeled black pumps.

“Today, for the first time, training is done with high-heeled shoes,” said cadet Ivanna Medvid at the ArmiaInform Ministry of Defense information site.

“It’s a little harder than in army boots but we’re trying,” Medvid said.

The choice of shoes sparked a lot of criticism on social media and in parliament, and women women were accused of being sexualized.

“The story of a heeled parade is really embarrassing,” commentator Vitaly Portnikov said on Facebook, arguing that some Ukrainian officials had a “medieval” mindset.

‘Sexism and misogyny’

Maria Shapranova, another commenter, accused the Defense Ministry of “sexism and misogyny”.

“High heels are a mockery of women established by the beauty industry,” she said.

Several Ukrainian lawmakers about former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko appeared in parliament wearing a pair of shoes and encouraged the defense minister to wear high heels at the parade.

“It’s hard to imagine a more idiotic and harmful idea,” said Inna Sovsun, a member of the Golos party, stressing the health risks.

She also said that Ukrainian women soldiers – like men – are life-threatening and “not worth making fun of”.

Ukraine has been fighting Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014.

Olena Kondratyu, a deputy spokeswoman for the legislature, said authorities should publicly apologize for “humiliating” and interrogating women.

Kondratyu said more than 13,500 women have fought in the current conflict.

The current conflict

The Ukrainian armed forces employ more than 31,000 women, more than 4,000 of whom are officers.

Defense Minister Andriy Taran met with a group of female cadets and listened to their problems with shoes and promised them a new model, the defense ministry said on Saturday.

“New and improved shoes should be made better, more ergonomic and in the shortest possible time,” the minister said.

The ministry’s statement received no apology, but said it felt that the “problem of heirs” was being used by some political forces for trivial politics and self-publicity.