When Kateryna Yesypchuk finished her first shift as a subway train driver for the Kyiv Metro in June 2025, her legs ached. Although the braking systems on the rumbling underground trains are only operated by hand, the 25-year-old explains, "I was instinctively pushing my feet against the floor because I'm so used to operating the brake pedal of my car."

Driving subway trains was forbidden for women until 2017, when 450 professions considered too "dangerous and harmful" for female workers were opened to all. Subway representatives at the time defended the ban on women drivers, citing noise and vibrations that they claimed could harm women's reproductive health.

Since the ban on female subway drivers was lifted, no women made it through the intensive training until recently.

In the fall of 2024, one woman began working in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, and today Yesypchuk is the first and only female underground train driver in Kyiv.

A Critical Shortage Of Manpower

Amid the ongoing Russian invasion, Ukraine is facing a critical shortage of manpower across many industries. In 2024, the Kyiv Metro slightly reduced the frequency of its trains, in part due to a shortage of drivers.

Yesypchuk says her mother was initially against the idea of her working as a driver underground amid the subway's "oil and grime," but the woman says she's used to getting her hands dirty.

She initially trained to be a mechanic in the central-eastern city of Dnipro, where she was the only female trainee among 93 men. "Some of the teachers were sure I'd sit through a couple of courses, then quit. But no -- I finished my studies," Yesypchuk recalls.

She worked in other roles within the Kyiv Metro company before the driver's position, with its reported salary of around $669 per month, came up. She says her husband was supportive of her giving it a shot.

At the driver's training program, Yesypchuk was one of 28 people who began the course, including three other women. Only 10 successfully completed it. Yesypchuk was the only woman among them.

The unusual sight of a female subway train driver in Kyiv has caused some problems.

During one shift Yesypchuk was preparing to switch with another driver and opened the door to her cab. When curious commuters approached to speak, she responded politely, but someone filmed the encounter. When the video appeared online, her managers reprimanded Yesypchuk for the breach of protocol. Speaking to the public through the open door is strictly forbidden.

While she admires the technology of Kyiv's subway network, Yesypchuk doesn't linger below ground any longer than she has to and avoids using the underground train system as a passenger. "The subway is constant noise," she says. "You go outside after work and it seems so quiet even when cars are honking."

Acquaintances above ground sometimes ask her why she is shouting. "I'm already used to the fact that in the subway you have to talk loudly to be heard," Yesypchuk says.

She is unsure whether she will commit to the job long term.

"I want to see how it goes," she says. "If I realize this isn't for me and that I've overestimated my abilities, then of course I'll find another job. But, for now, I'll try -- I'll be driving."

Kyiv is known for its decorative Soviet-era subway stations, but Yesypchuk says her favorite is the one she gets off at to finish her shift.

Yesypchuk's home is Myrnohrad, in the eastern Donetsk region, which is currently being fought over by invading Russian forces and Ukrainian troops. For now her family home is damaged but remains standing.

"I just want everything to be OK and to finally be able to say: 'I'm going home,'" she says.