'We fight two enemies' - Female Ukrainian soldiers on how they battle both Russia and sexism

On both sides of Dokivska Street and the small park leading to the steps of the Unity church in Kyiv's western Kotsyubyns'ke suburb, hundreds of men, women and children stood holding roses and carnations.

- Daniel Boffey

The only sound disturbing a recording of the sorrowful male voices in the folk song Plyve Kacha was that of the torturous grief of Eleonora Maltseva's mother, Iryna, awaiting a coffin in the shade of the maple and oak trees outside the large yellow-brick church.

Her daughter, known as Elya, 34, a colonel in the Ukrainian army, talented footballer and mother to Tymofiy, 14, was one of 12 soldiers killed last week when a Russian jet bombed a five-storey apartment block where she was working in the town of Orikhove, in the south-eastern Zaporizhzhia region, a staging post for Ukraine's counteroffensive.

So many people turned up at her funeral that it had to be held outdoors. Dressed in black, with a shawl over her hair, Iryna was beyond consolation, but kept leaning forward as if anxious not to miss her daughter's arrival. By her side, Tymofiy appeared impassive and numb.

Then the hearse turned right from Dokivska Street and came into view. With a wail, Iryna lurched to her feet, trying to run to her daughter, fighting off those who tried to hold her back. "Let me see her," she cried, as her small frame was engulfed by arms.

Tymofiy, suddenly overwhelmed, fell into the left shoulder of his stepfather Mykola's army uniform. The boy's head stayed there throughout the open casket service as Mykola stroked his cheek and rubbed his neck as he heaved with emotion.

More than a hundred female Ukrainian soldiers have been killed since Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion. Ukraine does not conscript women. They volunteered for battle.

"She was a flame I followed, a bright flame that always did the right thing, and we need more women like Elya in our army," said a sergeant who spoke at the service.