Berlinska joined the
Euromaidan protests on 22 November 2013 and stayed through the
Ukrainian Revolution of 2014. She compiled a database of the injured in hospitals, built barricades, delivered water and self-defence leaflets. When she met with
gender discrimination from male protesters, she gave speeches on women's rights. Her leg was injured during the protests, and years later she used a
walking stick. Berlinska's father also volunteered for the war in Donbas in 2016, He served as a
captain in the
24th Mechanized Brigade, and deputy brigade commander for psychological support. In January 2015, Berlinska founded the Ukrainian Centre for Aerial Reconnaissance (). This is a free training centre for Ukrainian volunteers, based at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, and run by volunteer civilian instructors, teaching soldiers how to operate drones, topography, and meteorology in a three to four-week course with donated drones. Berlinska unsuccessfully went to court in November 2017 to prove her participation in hostilities as a volunteer to obtain moral satisfaction and to serve as an example. The court ruled that she had proven her case, but then the
Ministry of Defense appealed and won, since, despite witnesses and photo and video evidence, there were no written orders. However, after this loss, Berlinska was contacted by Ukrainian Defense Minister
Stepan Poltorak, who asked for a meeting. After this meeting the Ministry announced plans to increase its own funding for drones and to found its own aerial reconnaissance school in 2018.
Invisible Battalion series In 2015, Berlinska became the project coordinator for
Invisible Battalion (), a report examining the participation of women in the Ukrainian armed forces. The title referred to the unknown role of women fighting for Ukraine in the war in Donbas. and was published in English and Ukrainian by
UN Women and the
Kyiv-Mohyla Law and Politics Journal in 2016. The report found that female soldiers were forbidden by law from holding military commands, did not have basic needs met, and, despite some women being in combat roles, were all categorized as support personnel. As a result, female soldiers did not receive the same salaries, legal protections, compensation for injuries, post-combat trauma care, and opportunities for career advancement in the military as male personnel. Largely because of the report, the Ministry of Defence issued Decree 337, allowing women to officially serve as snipers, intelligence officers, and commanders of military hardware, and in 2017 opened up 62 combat positions to women. and
Daria Zubenko, paramedic. It was 89 minutes long, in Ukrainian and Russian with English subtitles. Berlinska did not have any film production training, so again she learned from the Internet. and it was directed by
Iryna Tsilyk,
Svitlana Lischynska and
Alina Gorlova. Each of the directors directed two of the soldiers' stories. about the
Invisible Battalion In 2018, Berlinska produced the sequel documentary
No Obvious Signs (; referring to the fact that psychological trauma is not as visible as physical wounds), directed by Gorlova, about Yakubova's struggles with PTSD. This film won the
MDR Film Prize for Outstanding Eastern European Documentary at the 2018
Dok Leipzig film festival. In 2018 and again in 2019, Berlinska toured the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom with several of the women from the
Invisible Battalion film to screen the film and promote the
Invisible Battalion 2.0 study. This led to a May 2018 confrontation between Berlinska and Susak with Russian diplomat Maxim Buyakevich at the
Headquarters of the United Nations in
New York City in which Berlinska asked Buyakevich, "Why are you killing our people?". The
Russian Foreign Ministry characterized this interaction as the Ukrainians threatening the diplomat with death. In November 2019, Berlinska and two of the authors of the first Invisible Battalion study published
Invisible Battalion 2.0: Women Veterans Returning to Peaceful Life, a follow-up study on how female veterans used Ukraine Government services to reintegrate to civilian status. In August 2020, Berlinska's Institute of Gender Programs, the NGO founded to continue the "Invisible Battalion" project, began the advocacy campaign "Invisible Battalion 3.0: Sexual Harassment In The Military Sphere In Ukraine". It was a multifaceted campaign, beginning with an anonymous survey of male and female veterans, which showed that 70% had witnessed or been the victims of sexual harassment in the military. There was an online course on the Prometheus educational platform titled "Gender equality and combating sexual harassment in the military sphere" (). It was developed by the Invisible Battalion authors Martsenyuk, Hrytsenko, and Kvit, and included recorded lectures from veterans including Berlinska and Bilozerska, and journalists including
Yanina Sokolova, and . In November 2021, this course was taken by Police Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Bugaychuk of the (the university associated with the
Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs). A
chatbot running on the Invisible Battalion web site enabled military personnel to receive information and psychological and legal assistance about sexual harassment completely anonymously. In June 2021 the campaign authors and a representative of the Armed Forces of Ukraine delivered a final report with an analysis of current legislation on sexual harassment, with recommendations for legislative changes, and a signed memorandum of cooperation from the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
Women's Veteran Movement about IREX support for veteran reintegration in 2021 2017 saw the beginning of what would become the (). At first, these were informal meetings of women veterans in different cities, supported by
UN Women and the
European Endowment for Democracy. They were inspired by Berlinska's
Invisible Battalion project and film. It was officially registered as an
NGO in October 2019, with the three founders Berlinska, Andriana Susak-Arekhta and Kateryna Pryimak. In addition to mutual support meetings, the NGO provides psychological rehabilitation for women veterans suffering from PTSD and substance addiction, conducts online training in business, management, and IT courses, helps with gynecological services, and has planted five "Alleys of Memory" in honor of dead women veterans in
Kramatorsk,
Kyiv,
Lviv,
Cherkasy and
Zhytomyr. In 2021, Berlinska served as a senior technical advisor and program director for the
IREX program to reintegrate Ukrainian veterans into civilian society. By 2021, over 15% of the Ukrainian armed forces were female, over twice the proportion in 2014. However, when in July 2021 the Ministry of Defense released images of women Ukrainian cadets marching in
high heels, it met with widespread international criticism, and citing Berlinska; the subsequent photos had the women in
combat boots. == Honors ==