The units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs received 1,170 womenʼs body armor from the German Global Fund for Security Sector Reform.
This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
They will be handed over to border guards, the State Emergency Service, the National Guard and the National Police.
This is the first time that units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs receive body armor adapted for women. Thanks to special additional elements in the design, they will not create discomfort and provide the maximum level of protection.
Why is this important?
Currently, 41,000 women serve in the Armed Forces, and another 19,000 are civilian employees. About 5,000 women are directly involved in hostilities.
At the same time, for a long time there was a problem with womenʼs military uniforms, and special body armor adapted to the female anatomy was not foreseen at all.
This problem was actively addressed from the beginning of the full-scale invasion. On December 21, 2022 , a collection of womenʼs military uniforms was presented in Kyiv as part of the Arm women now project. The form from Arm women now is sewn taking into account the characteristics of the female body — the coat differs from the male one in the shoulders and chest, and the pants have a deeper fit and double fastening at the waist.
And already on December 26, 2022, it became known that the first batches of womenʼs military uniforms and underwear were sent for testing to several brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Only in February 2024 , the Armed Forces began issuing summer field suits, made taking into account female anthropometric parameters.