Ukraine’s military starts walking back plan for women to parade in pumps after backlash

Kyiv began allowing women to serve in combat units after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014. Women now make up more than 15 percent of the country’s armed forces, a rate twice as high as when the fighting began seven years ago, Ukraine’s military said recently. More than 13,000 women had received combatant status in the conflict, it said.