In Ukraine, a scandal broke out over the statements of Mark Sergeev, a chaplain and former youth pastor, who accused women in the Armed Forces of Ukraine of inappropriate behavior. Sergeev stated in the podcast that of the 77,000 women serving in the Armed Forces, the majority allegedly maintain intimate relationships with their fellow men. These statements have already caused a wide resonance and reaction from the servicewomen.
Sergeev, in one of the Metanoia YouTube podcasts, described women in the military as allegedly having intimate relationships with all the men in the unit. These statements caused outrage and were perceived as an attack on military women.
The response from the servicewomen was immediate. Alina Mykhaylova, a paramedic of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, urged Sergeev to join the front and personally replace women who, according to him, are engaged in inappropriate activities. She emphasized that a civilian man has no right to comment on the behavior of women in the army.
"This sexist attitude towards women in the army is already fed up. Go to the front and replace with yourself those women who, in his opinion, are doing something indecent there," Mykhailova said.
Kateryna Polishchuk, the defender of Azovstal, also spoke sharply, offering Sergeev to personally experience what it is like to serve at the front, and called on him to publicly apologize.
"Boy, we are waiting for a public apology and your participation in hostilities. And all my friends, all whom I and the other girls saved at the front, would love to "suck" you in bed. Civilian shit, opening his mouth in the direction of women who took up arms instead of him. It is very convenient to call yourself a chaplain and allow yourself such expressions. God can forgive, but we can't," she wrote.
Denys Popov, head of the "Svoboda" VO, commented with irony on Sergeev's statement, stressing that the reality in the army is significantly different from the way the chaplain described it. He noted that stereotypes about "model appearance" and "special-purpose ducks" do not correspond to reality, and that the requirements for the military are much higher.
"Actually, everything is much simpler. Can a situation similar to the one described take place? Theoretically, yes. But. Military servicewomen with a model appearance in the army are no more than beautiful women on average on the street. Or even less. Regarding "ducks - ssoshniks" - it is also almost true. Because most of the special forces are light and hardy, 70-80 kg of muscles and bones. Humvees can fit more of them, and evacuating each other from the battlefield is easier than 100-kg ducks. About the model appearance in the operational units of the SSO is a total delusion, because the selection there is terminator. Neither ducks nor an Instagram beauty can beat him," he wrote.
After extensive criticism, Sergeev apologized in a video on Instagram, saying that his words were overly harsh, but partly reflected his personal view.
"If I offended someone, I see that it affected many soldiers, forgive me for saying so... Maybe I said it somewhere in a harsh way, but this is my pain too, and it affects me too, because this is my country and I am going through the war just like each of us," he wrote.
The author of the podcast Yaroslav Bosak also apologized, noting that the fragment was taken out of context.
