Maria Berlinska

Mariia Serhiivna Berlinska (Ukrainian: Марія Сергіївна Берлінська; born 1988) is a Ukrainian military volunteer, civic activist, and defense technology advocate. She was a participant in the Revolution of Dignity in 2014 and subsequently volunteered for the war in Donbas as an aerial reconnaissance drone operator. Returning from the front, Berlinska founded a free school to train Ukrainian military personnel and volunteers in aerial reconnaissance. Since 2015, Berlinska has advocated for women's integration into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. She co-founded the Women's Veteran Movement non-governmental organization, and coordinated the Invisible Battalion, a series of three reports on Ukrainian military women's recognition, reintegration, and harassment, and produced two films on women veterans. This work is credited for a series of laws gradually granting women equality in the Ukrainian armed forces. Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, she founded the Victory Drones initiative, one of Ukraine's largest drone education projects, and later launched Victory Neurones, an initiative focused on strengthening Ukraine's cognitive warfare capabilities. She has also advocated for expanding the role of emerging technologies in Ukraine's national defense and military modernization.