“Female police officers are better at building trust with victims”— Deputy Interior Minister Kateryna Pavlichenko

Kateryna has been working in the police since 2015 when the reform was implemented to replace the former Militsiya with the new structure. In 2016, Pavlichenko was appointed Deputy Head of the Patrol Police Department, and in 2019 — Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.

Kateryna Pavlichenko told hromadske about her stunning career, gender stereotypes about women in uniform, and how to overcome them.

“My father worked in the police when there were completely different approaches”

Kateryna Pavlichenko gives the impression of a confident person. It seems that each time she faces a challenge there is a well-considered decision that she makes herself. It was like that in 2015, when she decided to leave her job at the Tax Service and start working at the National Police.

Kateryna’s father used to work in law enforcement, but Kateryna’s relatives found out about her decision to change her career path after she had done it.

“They were a little skeptical about it at first,” she says. “My father worked in the police when the approaches were completely different.”

In 2015, many women joined the National Police together with Kateryna.

“Before, we had never seen women in a police car, but in 2015 the situation changed. Now, both women and men perform the same functions in police units, and in general in the field of security and defense,” says Kateryna.

Kateryna has a strong commanding voice with no signs of aggression or anger, only confidence. She says that now there are many proactive policewomen ready to work in patrol, in senior or command positions of companies and battalions.

“Apparently, these changes were initiated precisely thanks to the women who joined the police in 2015, who were ready to make decisions, were not afraid to work together with men, and accept various challenges,” says Kateryna.

"A policewoman I know told me that when she goes to a place of an accident with her partner, citizens only talk to the man. And she had to attract their attention: I’m also a police officer, I’m here.”

To promote equal rights and opportunities for women and men in law enforcement agencies, in 2018 Kateryna Pavlichenko founded the NGO “Ukrainian Association of Women in Law Enforcement”. During the full-scale invasion by Russia, members of the organization helped each other evacuate, shared their experiences and experience of participating in combat and special operations.

“I was surprised by how well everything went and by the huge support I found in this group,” says Kateryna.

It’s easier for female police officers to talk to children and women

Two weeks before the full-scale invasion, large-scale tactical and special exercises were held with representatives of units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system in the south of Ukraine. When the full-scale invasion started, everyone knew how to act.

On February 24, at five in the morning, Kateryna got the information on the radio that all the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were put on the alert. Half an hour later, she was already at work. Operational meetings began immediately, where participants coordinated their actions.

“In the beginning, it was difficult to comprehend that this was no longer a training session, but a reality. Gradually, I started realizing it,” recalls Kateryna.

And the amount of work was only increasing. We had to “move” educational institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs system from the temporarily occupied territories. It was important to help universities adapt to new learning conditions.  In this difficult time for cadets, we had to be the support that would help them switch from training to practical work in the police.

“Cadets, except for the first-year cadets, started working in the units of the National Police and the National Guard. They took over shifts, were stationed at checkpoints, or took the third place in the crew,” says Kateryna.

With the outbreak of a full-scale war, all police officers performed tasks that they had not previously been engaged in. People were evacuated, humanitarian aid was delivered, and defense was ensured together with the military. Special working groups were also created to record military and sexual crimes.

According to Kateryna, the fact that there were female policemen in these groups helped a lot because the policewomen established trust and found a common language with the victims better. These groups included those who had already worked on cases of domestic violence or cases involving children — that is, they understood the specifics of working with the victim.

“The police spoke with the local population to find out if they knew, if they had heard, if they themselves had been victims of sexual violence during the occupation,” says Kateryna.

“Even after the work of investigative units in these territories, the police discovered and recorded new crimes.”

Since the police had a lot of work at the beginning of the invasion, there was no opportunity to conduct specialized training. Such training has begun in recent months, and various Ukrainian law enforcement agencies participate in them and exchange experience.

Currently, 43 criminal cases have been initiated on crimes related to sexual violence during the war. Among them, there are cases with several persons involved in the crime, several victims, and a different number of episodes. In other words, this figure is not definitive and is bigger considering the essence of the crime.

“This is obviously not a full picture, we will never know about everything. People who have experienced sexual violence want to go to rehabilitation, get help, and forget about it as soon as possible and never mention it. They don’t tell us, because they don’t want to go through this trauma again,” says Pavlichenko.

“One little button” against domestic violence

Since Kateryna joined the ministry, she has been working on countering domestic violence. The number of cases reported to the police increased — information campaigns that urged victims not to remain silent have yielded results.

“But since the beginning of the war, the number of complaints about domestic violence has sharply decreased. Not because it disappeared but because people were confused, everyone somehow tried to adapt to the situation,” says Pavlichenko.

Since February 24, the NPU has registered more than 58 thousand reports of domestic violence. This is half as much as in the same period of 2021. But this does not mean that domestic violence has disappeared.

To help the victims escape, the Ministry of Internal Affairs presented an app. It works like this: you download it to your phone and call for help without making a call, without attracting the abuser’s attention.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has also changed internal regulatory documents on sexual harassment in the workplace. The team implemented these changes in cooperation with the UN Women Ukraine and with the support of the Danish government.

“Now such cases should be subject to an internal investigation. Another question arises: to what extent are women and men who may also be affected willing to report these cases? Some regulatory documents are being changed, but we still need to work with gender stereotypes in society so that the documents are used as they should,” explains Pavlichenko.

“I have a dream that one day the conference of the International Association of Women Police will be held in Ukraine”

In September of this year, Kateryna Pavlichenko gave a speech at the conference of the International Association of Women Police. The event was held in Canada. The Deputy Minister spoke about new challenges for the police during the war, the role of women in the security sector, and war crimes committed by the occupiers. She imagined that all those female policemen who listened to her would certainly come to Ukraine one day.

“I have a dream that one day the conference of the International Association of Women Police will be held in Ukraine,” says Kateryna.

"When police officers from 70 countries of the world will arrive in Kyiv. And I am convinced that this will happen after our very close victory.”

This partner article was published as an advertisement. The piece was created in collaboration with the UN Women project “Decentralization Reforms and Community Security: Transformative Approaches to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Ukraine” funded by the Danish government.

Journalist Oksana Pavlenko, editors Khrystyna Kotsira and Victoria Beha, designer Tetiana Kostik, creative producer Anna Sokha, and translator Khrystyna Skorenka worked on the piece.