Lt Yulia Mykytenko
Lieutenant Yulia Mykytenko was born in Kyiv in 1995. The daughter of a Russian-speaking family, she learned to love the Ukrainian language as a student at Kyiv-Mohyla University. The 2013/14 Revolution of Dignity convinced her that Ukraine needed to break free from Russia and embrace a future with the West. With fellow students, she co-founded the ‘female squad’ of the 16th regiment of the Self-Defence Force during the Euromaidan protests.
In 2015, Lt Mykytenko fell in love with Illia Serbin, a soldier. They married and on graduating from Kyiv-Mohyla in 2016 she joined the 54th Mechanised Brigade of the Ukrainian army to be with him. They were stationed in Donetsk from 2016 until he was killed in a Russian bombardment in 2018.
Lt Mykytenko supervised the first women’s class at Ivan Bohun Military Academy. After a brief return to civilian life, she rejoined the Ukrainian army on the first day of Russia’s full-scale invasion. She returned to the eastern front in Donetsk, where she has served as commander of the Hellish Hornets drone platoon since June 2022. She was awarded the Medal of Courage in December 2022. Her biography, How Good It Is I Have No Fear of Dying: Lt Yulia Mykytenko’s Fight for Ukraine, by Lara Marlowe has been published in Germany, the UK, US and France.
