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Russian soldiers are said to be systematically raping people. The Ukrainian leadership uses the reports for propaganda.
It’s Victoria’s 42nd birthday when the Russians pick her up at her house. March 9, 2022: The army has been occupying their home village of Berestianka outside of Kyiv for a week. “They took me to a neighbor’s house and shot him dead in front of me,” says Victoria. “Then they took his wife and me to an empty house. They raped us there.”
Ilya, 21, from Kramatorsk in the Donbass, says: «Russian soldiers stopped our car at a checkpoint. I had to get out, they took me to a cabin next to the road.” It is April 10, 2022, Ilya is on the run with his mother and sister. «They found photos of a pro-Ukrainian demonstration on my mobile phone. They beat me and stuffed a piece of cloth in my mouth,” says Ilja. “When I came to, I was lying naked on a table in excruciating pain.”
Victoria and Ilja speak in the “Rundschau” what many others are silent about. Rape is part of war – that is also the case in Ukraine. The United Nations High Commission is currently investigating 124 sexual crimes in Ukraine. In reality, there are likely to be many more victims.
degradation and humiliation
Marta Havryshko is a historian and researcher on sexual violence in war. After the invasion of the Russian army, she fled Ukraine herself – to Switzerland. Havryshko speaks of rape as a weapon of war. “They not only harm the victims and the witnesses, but also shake social cohesion.”
Intimate bonds would be destroyed, fear would be stoked. “The Russian soldiers are signaling to the Ukrainians that they are unable to protect their women.” It’s about humiliation, degradation.
The Ukrainian leadership has been publicly denouncing the sexual crimes committed by the Russian army for some time. In a speech on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos, the responsible ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova embellished the reports of rape victims with terrible details – for which she presented no evidence.
“Insensitive to those affected”
The descriptions were so cruel that resistance formed in their own country. In an open letter to the Ukrainian parliament, journalists and human rights activists appealed for Denisova to be deposed. This complied with the request.
“The Ukrainian government uses the sex crimes as a political tool to emphasize the cruelty of the Russian soldiers,” criticizes Marta Havryshko. The propaganda is insensitive to those affected. “Conversely, the government offers the victims insufficient help.”
Ilya and Victoria hope for justice
However, Ukrainian law enforcement is trying to punish war crimes such as rape. Ilya and Victoria have reported their cases to the authorities. Procedures are now in progress.
They hope for justice. “I wish this would all be over soon,” says Victoria. “And I wish I could forget all that one day.”