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Due to her embezzlement of EU funds, the party’s far-right leader in France, Marine Le Pen, will not be able to run for president until the next presidential election after serving four years in prison and prohibited from running for office for five years.

Last summer, Kateryna Zarembo gave up an academic career in political science to volunteer as a paramedic on Ukraine’s front lines.

She served in rotations lasting two or four weeks, allowing her time to raise her four children aged three to 12. Weeks after United States President Donald Trump’s inauguration, she decided to enlist.

“I think what Donald Trump is doing right now is not just retreating from Europe. It is actually, possibly harming Ukraine in the battle against Russia. It is actually creating an autocracy in real time,” she said.

It was, for Zarembo, a “reminder of our absolutely, existentially crucial self-reliance”.

“I was thinking, the future of Ukraine is in the hands of Ukraine’s army, and that’s why I have to be part of the professional community, not just a volunteer,” she told Al Jazeera.

Zarembo’s Hospitallers Medical Battalion, which gives the wounded their first pre-hospital treatment a few kilometres from the line of contact, and evacuates them, consists mostly of women and is an example of how they are playing a growing role in Ukraine’s defence.

Women in Ukraine’s 900,000-strong armed forces have climbed from 52,000 at the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than three years ago, to more than 70,000 today.

More than 20,000 are in combat roles, and 5,500 are fighting in the trenches.

“We don’t have compulsory conscription for women. All joined voluntarily for different reasons,” parliamentarian Yevheniia Kravchuk told Al Jazeera. “Some come from military families. I know one who stepped in after her father was killed and others do it for a brother killed, for revenge.”

Zarembo’s family demonstrates how the war is gradually consuming all of Ukrainian society.

Her husband is now a military technology contractor to the government.

Her children understand there is always the danger a Russian drone could slip past electronic jammers to where Zarembo treats wounded soldiers.

“Those who are smaller, the three- and five-year-olds, they just cling to my legs, and don’t want to hear about [my] going,” she said. “And the bigger ones who understand more, they worry and they say that they will miss me, and also kind of protest in their own way.”

The Orobets household’s perspective on the future is similarly transformed.

Lesya Orobets’ husband is fighting on the front lines, leaving her to run the family engineering business.

“His salary we donated to his regiment, to his cause,” she explained to Al Jazeera.

During a leave of absence a few months ago, the parents gathered their two teenage daughters around the kitchen table.

“We were discussing their future professions, and we came up with the suggestion that besides a civilian profession everyone should choose for themselves, they also need to have some military skills, depending on their talents and their interest,” Orobets said.

“It looks like the future decade would probably be the decade of wars. And in order to be able to protect your country and yourself, you have to be useful no matter the gender.”

Both girls have been learning how to shoot from an early age. The eldest is thinking of becoming an aerospace engineer.

A decade ago, she would not have been able to do that.

Official records show that when Russia annexed Crimea and sent troops into eastern Ukraine in 2014, women played only supporting roles.

“In 2014 … women who wanted to take combat positions as snipers and [operating] grenade launchers could not officially hold these positions, so they were put down as cooks and medics but were actually doing the combat role,” said Kravchuk, the parliamentarian. “They called themselves ‘the invisible battalion’. It took years to change that.”

In 2017, women were made eligible for combat roles and all ranks of the military, elevating them above menial tasks that carried the lowest pay, rank and status.

“That was not just opening new opportunities for women, but naming them by … posts they were actually fulfilling,” said Orobets.

Days before Russia’s full-scale invasion began, the parliament, Verkhovna Rada, expanded the list of professions whose female employees had to register with the armed forces for possible conscription. A thousand women enlisted immediately.

Today, women serve as snipers, drone operators, fighter pilots, and artillery operators, in special operations and in air defence. Some 1,500 have received medals. Five have received the highest honour, the Hero of Ukraine medal.

The recognition has led to changing perceptions of women’s roles.

On November 17, Nataliya Grabarchuk became an overnight hero when, on her first day as an anti-aircraft gunner, she destroyed a Russian cruise missile using a Man-Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS).

Orobets founded The Price of Freedom, an NGO that designed Sky Shield, a proposed air defence umbrella for Ukraine enlisting Ukrainian and European air forces.

Women’s growing role in intelligence, national security and defence has also been accompanied by their growing role in governance, said Olena Tregub, the head of Ukraine’s Anticorruption Commission.

She rattled off a list of transparency bodies headed by women – including the Military Ombudsman, the anticorruption task force within the Ministry of Defence, and the Ministry of Strategic Industries responsible for defence production.

“All these women came during war,” Tregub said, and were helping direct resources where they needed to go.

Women also became the visible international advocates for weapons and financial aid at the request of former commander in chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, because conscription for them was voluntary and they were allowed to leave the country, said Tregub.

Women have also shouldered a growing burden in keeping the economy afloat.

The government pays to re-qualify women in a list of professions like truck drivers, tractor drivers, trolley drivers, and anything connected to construction such as electrical and plumbing work, said Kravchuk.

Last year, women qualified for 61 percent of loans to open small and medium-sized enterprises in Ukraine, and established 59 percent of them.

Women’s advance in all these roles is connected to the perception that all of society is at stake.

“We fight against our children being deported to Russia and being raised as Russians, and we fight against our women being raped and killed. And of course, against everyone being killed,” said Zarembo, referring respectively to Ukrainian allegations of the forcible transfer of children to Russia without familial consent and of Moscow’s forces committing sexual assault and other war crimes.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, said on Sunday that he was “p***** off” with Vladimir Putin and that he would impose additional sanctions on the sale of Russian oil if he refused to ratify a ceasefire in Ukraine.

Trump’s attitude changed significantly since his first statement, which was made in January. He has been open to negotiations over peace with Moscow.

What Trump’s threat may involve, what it means, and why it is significant for Putin’s war on Ukraine and for Russian oil-sustaining nations.

Trump’s comments on Putin: what did they say?

Trump reportedly expressed his “p***** off” and “very angry” at Putin’s questioning of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy in an interview with NBC on Sunday.

According to Trump, any attempt to oust Zelenskyy as Ukraine’s leader would unavoidably make the situation less likely to end.

Trump did state that Putin was aware of his anger toward him. He claimed that Putin and he shared a “very good relationship” and that if he does what he says is right, the anger would quickly dissipate.

What was Zelenskyy’s fate, according to Putin?

According to Putin, Zelenskyy lacked the authority to sign a peace treaty.

Since the 2014 overthrow of Moscow-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych, who the Kremlin claims had US support, the Russian leader has frequently made accusations that the Ukrainian government is illegitimate.

Putin made the suggestion on Thursday that Ukraine should have a temporary administration under the auspices of the UN. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of the UN rejected this suggestion.

In 2019, Zelenskyy sworn in for a five-year term as Ukraine’s president. Following Russia’s massive invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a war broke out. Ukraine’s constitution prohibits holding elections under martial law conditions, and the country was supposed to have presidential elections in 2024, but the country has since been declared martial due to the conflict.

The American leader recently did the same thing when Trump has now criticized Putin for denying Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as Ukraine’s president.

In a post on his Truth Social platform in February, Trump called Zelenskyy “A Dictator without Elections” amid tensions with the Ukrainian leader, &nbsp.

How far along are diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine?

Trump vowed to put an end to the Ukrainian conflict during his campaign for president.

US negotiating teams have met in Saudi Arabia more than once to discuss peace arrangements since he was inaugurated. Since then, Trump has spoken with Zelenskyy and Putin separately.

On March 25, the three sides came to a decision to stop using military force in the Black Sea. Additionally, they both agreed to put a 30-day stop to energy infrastructure in Russia and Ukraine. However, both sides have alleged that they are attacking energy facilities and have violated this.

A 30-day total ceasefire on land and sea has been agreed upon by Ukraine and the US, but it needs to be approved by Russia. Putin has not approved this proposal, citing concerns that Ukraine might use the time to arm itself, including with supplies of cutting-edge Western weapons, and recruit more soldiers in a country with a manpower shortage.

What threat did Trump make, and how will it be implemented?

If Trump finds Moscow to be accountable for failing to reach a ceasefire agreement, he has threatened “secondary tariffs” on Russian oil.

In a televised interview with NBC, Trump said, “I am going to put secondary tariffs on all oil coming from Russia” if Russia and I are unable to reach a resolution about stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, which it might not be.

“You could not conduct business in the United States if you bought oil from Russia,” the statement read. A 25-point, 25-point, and 25-point tariff will be applied to all oil.

It’s unknown whether these threats will put pressure on Russia, according to Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London.

Giles remarked that Trump’s sporadic threats to impose some sort of economic pressure on Russia “never last long,” adding that if Trump were to put pressure on Moscow rather than Kyiv, they would be a “radical departure” from his previous policy toward the conflict.

Giles remarked, “Putin knows that this threat is not dead, but the previous ones have been,” adding that.

Secondary tariffs: what are they?

Trump’s use of “secondary tariffs” implies tariffs on imports from nations that purchase Russian oil.

The US has long spearheaded campaigns involving what are known as secondary sanctions, which apply to nations that engage in trade with sanctioned nations. For instance, US sanctions are in place for purchasing Iranian oil or other heavy military equipment from Russia; this includes countries, businesses, and individuals who trade these goods.

Most global banks and financial institutions do not want to risk losing out on business in the US because of secondary US sanctions.

Secondary tariffs, in contrast, have not been thoroughly tested as a phenomenon. Trump also placed a 25% secondary tariff on US imports from nations that import Venezuelan oil and gas.

Which nations could be impacted by Trump’s secondary tariffs?

India and China could suffer the most from additional tariffs imposed by Trump on Russian oil.

The two biggest buyers of inexpensive Russian crude are China and India.

In 2024, Russian oil accounted for 35% of India’s total crude imports, while it accounted for 19% of China’s crude imports. Additionally, Turkey imports Russian oil, accounting for 58% of its refined petroleum imports in 2023.

How much would China, India, and Turkiye suffer from secondary tariffs?

It’s unclear whether Trump’s tariffs would be incorporated into existing tariffs or to be combined with those that are already in place.

China’s largest export market is located in the US. In 2024, China sold goods worth $463bn to the US. Trump has already imposed 20% tariffs on all Chinese imports.

India’s top export market is also the US. In the US, Indian exports surpassed $91 billion in 2024. Trump has, however, criticized India’s high import tariffs.

The exposure to Turkiye is comparatively low. After Germany, the US has the second-largest export market, accounting for $ 17 billion in 2024.

Trump has threatened reciprocal, tit-for-trade tariffs on all US trading partners starting on April 2.

And if Trump actually represses nations that purchase Russian oil, India in particular might find itself under scrutiny. Because of its longstanding accusations of buying subordinated Russian oil, refining it, and selling it to the West, India, which has 22 oil refineries, including Gujarat’s largest in Jamnagar, has long been accused of doing so, effectively assisting Moscow in thwarting Western sanctions.

According to data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), India exported $55.8 billion worth of refined oil products like gasoline and diesel to nations like the US, the UK, France, and Belgium in 2023.

According to OEC data, India exports 7.5 percent of US oil as of 2023, trailing only behind Canada.

India has long argued that by purchasing Russian oil, it has freed up crude from other sources, including those from the Middle East and Africa, for Western countries to purchase, thereby regulating global oil prices. Every country would have to scramble for limited supplies of crude from elsewhere, which would increase prices if Russia, a major producer, were no longer available to anyone.