My husband was shot and I was raped when my son was at home: crimes of the Russian military
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The 33-year-old Ukrainian woman told The Times that she had been raped by drunken Russian soldiers for several hours. This is just one of the crimes of the Russian invaders in the Kyiv region.
The occupiers shot her husband in the yard, and his body was lying at the gate. All this time, her 4-year-old son was at home, hiding in the boiler room.
«I shot your husband because he was a Nazi,» the Russian told her.
Two occupiers forced the woman to undress and raped her in turn, putting a gun to her temple. She said they were very drunk.
«They did not care that my son was crying in the boiler room. I was ordered to shut him up and return.
When they finally fell asleep, I ran to my son. I told him we had to run very fast. Otherwise, we will be shot.
At the gate, the son saw his father’s body, but in the dark he did not realize that it was him. He asked me, «Will we be shot in the same way as this man?» The woman said.
Together with her son, the woman managed to escape to western Ukraine. She had not yet told her son that his father is no longer alive.
«I could have kept quiet, and not spoken about rape. But when we came to the police, my husband’s sister persuaded me to talk about it. There was no way back. I understand that many people who have suffered choose to remain silent because they are afraid. Many people do not believe that such horrible things happen,» said the victim.
Also listen to: We were afraid to talk about sexual violence in peacetime, but now it is getting worse — Christina Keith
Will there be punishment?
On March 22, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine Iryna Venediktova announced that Ukrainian law enforcement officials had announced the first suspicion of a rape of a woman in the Kyiv region by a Russian aggressor. According to her, in one of the villages in the Brovary district, a Russian soldier broke into a private house and shot the owner.
“After that, the drunken occupier and his colleague repeatedly raped the wife of the murdered civilian, threatening her with violence and weapons,» the prosecutor general said at the time.
The Russian military was suspected of violating the laws and customs of war. A warrant has been issued and a request for detention was filed with the court.
A photo of Russian commander Mikhail Romanov and his family later appeared online, along with a report that he raped a Ukrainian woman. There were also reports on the Internet that he had already been killed by the Armed Forces. There is no confirmation of this information.
Also listen to: «A machine gun aimed at my window»: a woman from Hostomel about life under occupation
Rape by the Russian military
According to international humanitarian expert Kateryna Busol in a commentary for The New York Times, information about rape and sexual violence began to appear almost immediately after Russia invaded Ukraine.
«What we hear from the victims is appalling. These are cases of gang rape, child rape and sexual assault after the murder of family members,” she said.
On March 9, Dariya Kaleniuk, executive director of the Center for Combating Corruption, wrote about two cases of alleged rape and murder in Kyiv Oblast.
«My friends, two young girls, were tortured, raped and killed. One of them was an excellent doctor, and the other was a scientist and had a doctorate in philosophy,» said Kalenyuk.
The activist said she could not reveal the name of the woman she quoted, but allowed the media to quote her. It is impossible to verify this story during the war.
Another story about Mariupol:
«The woman was raped every day for a week in front of her 6-year-old son. And Nastya writes that her friend died today. Terrible bleeding, tears. Unfortunately, they could not save her. The son was left alone with a lock of gray hair.”
His father had been taken away by the Russian military earlier. According to the victim’s friend, her son is in a hospital in Kyiv. Needless to say, a psychiatrist works with him.
The Interior Ministry also believes that the Russian occupiers are committing rape in the occupied territories, but at present these cases are simply impossible to document. This, in particular, is evidenced by the conversations of the invaders intercepted by the Ukrainian special services, explains the adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, on Radio Svoboda.
In an intercepted conversation Gerashchenko mentioned, a Russian military man probably spoke about the rape, which was probably committed by another Russian soldier: «Dude, this is my buddy. Look, he says, I drove into the yard in a tank… I went into the house, I took out the door, he says. I shot everyone, killed them, he says, f*ck them, he says.»
Also listen to: When a child sees the bodies of the dead on the street, it is not necessary to say that they are asleep — Dariya Gerasymchuk
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