Female Senators Want Women Included in Russia-Ukraine Peace Talks

A bipartisan group of female senators will introduce legislation Thursday pushing for the involvement of women in any peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, according to a draft copy of the measure The Daily Beast obtained before its release.

But notably, the resolution’s main sponsor, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), only allowed female senators to be original cosponsors on the legislation. Shaheen’s office said it wanted to open the resolution up to women senators first to send a message that women senators stand behind women in Ukraine.

Russia’s callousness and disregard for life has been a constant since the early days of the invasion for Ukrainian women, the group of 24 female senators will argue in their resolution.

From Russia’s strikes on a Ukrainian maternity hospital early in the war to Russian forces using rape as a weapon, Ukrainian women have endured clear atrocities throughout Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion.

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“Following the devastating attack on the well-known and established hospital, the world watched in horror as pregnant women, mothers carrying newborn babies, and young children fled the rubble of what should have been a safe place,” the proposal, slated to be introduced later Thursday, will say. “The women at the hospital should have been celebrating new life and looking toward raising their children in peace and safety, instead, those women are seeking shelter in subways, giving birth in bunkers, and worrying for the safety of their children and the future of Ukraine.”

Russian forces have taken aim at several maternity wards during the war. And while 4,300 Ukrainian women have given birth since the start of the war, 80,000 are expected to give birth between April and June this year, according to the United Nations.

Making matters worse, Russia has promised to allow humanitarian aid to reach Ukrainians, only to block humanitarian aid deliveries, according to Ukrainian authorities, preventing Ukrainian women from gaining access to critical supplies they need to maintain and care for their pregnancies.

Shaheen’s proposal, while a nonbinding resolution, would express the sense of the Senate that allies and all countries should provide more humanitarian aid to women who are working to keep their families and children safe, recognize the key role women are playing in getting children and family members to safety as Russia invades, and urge all countries to include women in peace negotiations.

The group of cosponsors of the proposal includes Sens. Joni Ernst (R-IA), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Susan Collins (R-ME), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tina Smith (D-MN), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Patty Murray (D-WA), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), and Maria Cantwell (D-WA).

Two other female senators, Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Deb Fischer (R-NE) didn't sign on initially, although both signed on as original cosponsors after this story published.

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While the resolution was first opened to female senators for cosponsorship, the legislation would need male supporters to be adopted in the Senate. Once the resolution is introduced, anyone can sign on.

For Ukrainian women, the trauma of these Russian attacks will live on for quite some time, Dr. Aditi Nerurkar, a doctor with a specialty in stress and resilience who has previously worked with the World Health Organization on refugee health, told The Daily Beast.

“In the moment we just shore up our internal reserves, we manage our situation in crisis. And then the minute you kind of feel a little bit more safe, but it all comes down,” Nerurkar said. “Thinking about the Ukrainian women here, there is also no moment to have any respite, to step back and reflect on what’s happening. They are knee deep in it. They’re taking care of their kids. It’s a matter of survival.”

Ukrainian women are helping to defend their country in a number of ways, including the most direct one: 17 percent of Ukraine’s armed forces are women.

While early predictions indicated Kyiv might fall to Russia within 72 hours, Ukrainians have prevailed. In some cities, devastation has reigned. In others, Ukrainians have successfully booted Russians from their neighborhoods.

Jim Hake, the CEO of Spirit of America—a nonprofit that works to provide body armor, helmets, and medical supplies to Ukrainians—told The Daily Beast he’s starting to get the sense that the Ukrainians he’s working with could prevail with the right equipment.

“What we’re seeing is they can actually win. And we… need to help them do that as much as we can,” Hake told The Daily Beast. “The spirit of the Ukrainians that has come out since the war began at every level from grandmothers down to teenagers and families to doing what they can to both certainly survive but to defend their country is inspiring.”

But that work isn’t bereft of terrors and traumas built to last a lifetime either.

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A group of female Ukrainian troops in recent days were captured by Russian soldiers and forced to cut their hair off, strip naked, and ultimately, were tortured, Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said on her Telegram account early this week. The troops were freed this week as part of a prisoner swap with Russia.

“This is an acute stress. This is trauma with a capital T,” Nerurkar said.

And while women and girls are at great risk during wartime of being targets of violence, including sexual violence, historically they have been excluded from resolution negotiations, according to Human Rights Watch, something the lawmakers urge needs to change quickly in the coming days so that women’s needs on the ground can be met.

So far, the Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations aren’t looking much different from the status quo: Both sides have had a dearth of women involved in the peace talks.

And it’s not just about optics. While admittedly Russia may not be the most honest and earnest partner in peace talks to begin with, the chances of a lasting peace dramatically shoot up when women are involved in drafting any peace accord, according to a study from the International Peace Institute.

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Members of the United Nations have skin in the game, too. Over two decades ago, the United Nations Security Council acknowledged women’s involvement is crucial to creating a lasting peace in the Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security.

“During conflicts, women are often the targets of violence, human trafficking, rape and trauma. Distressingly, that pattern is on display in Ukraine as Russian forces rape and murder women, deliberately bomb maternity wards, and attack humanitarian corridors and aid convoys. But Ukrainian women have not been deterred. From leadership positions in diplomacy and civil society, they are playing a critical role in leading evacuation efforts and delivering humanitarian assistance,” Shaheen, who met with women parliamentarians from Ukraine last week, told The Daily Beast. “When women are empowered, conflict resolutions last longer and women are less likely to be victims of violence.”

The rallying cry from the female lawmakers comes as images of atrocities are flooding out from Ukraine—of mass graves, of torture rooms where Russian forces have allegedly tortured and killed Ukrainian civilians, of women, naked and brutally killed in the streets of the cities of Ukraine. The images have triggered world leaders to go after Putin himself; President Joe Biden is now calling the Russian president a war criminal and urging that he be prosecuted as such.

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