Wings of defiance

Kateryna, a senior lieutenant and the Ukrainian Army’s only female combat pilot, posing in front of her helicopter in eastern Ukraine after a mission. — Oksana Parafeniuk/The New York Times

THE Ukrainian helicopter, returning from a mission firing rockets at Russian troops, swooped in low over a forest of birch trees and touched down in a clearing in a cloud of dust.

The door opened, and the pilot emerged, blinking away the dust with mascaraed eyelashes, her nails manicured a deep burgundy.