‘The compassion of the female heart’ Excerpts from Vladimir Putin’s International Women’s Day speeches in 2022 and today

I want to address the mothers, wives, sisters, fiancées, and female friends of our soldiers and officers who are currently in battle, defending Russia in the special military operation. I understand how worried you are for your loved ones. You can take pride in them just as the entire country takes pride in them and worries for them.

Let me stress that soldiers undergoing compulsory military service are not and will not be taking part in combat. Nor will there be an additional draft of soldiers from the reserves. Only professional soldiers will carry out our designated mission. I’m confident that they can be counted on to ensure security and peace for the people of Russia.

Today, in all of the cities and villages in our large country, people are talking about their love and admiration for mothers, grandmothers, sisters, wives, daughters, and female friends, and are doing their best to bring joy to their sweethearts and loved ones, to hug them, and to tell them the things that there’s sometimes not enough time to say in the whirlwind of daily life; to say hello and to send kind, sincere greetings to those who believe and who wait at home during trials and separations.

Today, I want to say a separate congratulations to the female servicewomen who have chosen for themselves the highest mission — the defense of the Motherland. The women from combat units; the military doctors; the paramedics; the nurses from regimental aid stations, the medical corps, and the hospitals; who risk their own lives to save injured soldiers. Your bravery, your decisiveness, [and] your courage is striking to even the toughest fighters.

In difficult moments, in times that test our passion, the compassion of the female heart always turns into a powerful force that points to the more correct, just, and necessary course of action. That’s what’s happening right now. I know how you sincerely, sometimes selflessly, support our soldiers and officers — both your loved ones and complete strangers — with prayers, warm words, and kind acts. You write letters, send packages with all the necessities, weave camouflage nets, and volunteer at hospitals to care for every soldier like he’s your own son.