Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, reports of sexual violence by Russian soldiers have increased. A particularly dramatic case near Kyiv is causing an international sensation. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister speaks of war crimes.
She was in her house in a village near the Ukrainian capital Kyiv when she heard footsteps and a shot was fired, the woman tells the British “” under the pseudonym Natalya. Moments later her husband lay dead on her doorstep and two Russian soldiers stood in front of her, one held a gun to her head. “I shot your husband because he was a Nazi,” the gunman said before he and the other soldier raped her – while in the room next door she heard her four-year-old son sobbing.
Natalya’s case first came to light last week when Iryna Venediktova, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, reported in an editorial that a Russian soldier killed an unarmed civilian and then repeatedly raped his wife. He is now wanted for arrest “on suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the prosecutor general’s statement as a “lie” and told reporters in Moscow that “this information is not believed at all”.
Natalya reports that she was later raped a second time by the soldiers and finally managed to flee to western Ukraine with her son. “I could have stayed silent, but when we got to the police, my husband’s sister made me say something and there was no turning back,” she is quoted as saying by the Times. “I understand that many people who have been hurt would remain silent because they are afraid. Many people do not believe that such terrible things happen.”
War in Ukraine: Cases of sexual violence are increasing
Reports of sexual violence and rape in Ukraine have increased since the Russian invasion began on February 24. Only on Tuesday did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj accuse the Russian armed forces of forcibly deporting and raping people from the embattled port city of Mariupol. “There are many more victims,” Ukrainian MP Maria Mezentseva told “” on Sunday, referring to Natalya’s case. She expects these to come to light as soon as the women are “ready to talk about it”. “We will definitely not remain silent,” promised the politician.
Her words are reminiscent of those of her parliamentary colleague Lesia Vasylenko, who had already warned of sexual assaults and rapes by Russian soldiers at the beginning of March. “We have reports of gang rapes. These women are usually the ones who cannot escape. We are talking about older people (…)” Vasylenko said at the time.
The Ukrainian lawyer Kateryna Busol, who has already documented the cases of sexual violence in the course of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 for the British think tank Chatham House, confirms similar descriptions. “These reports are increasing, and we’re hearing that they’re much more widespread than the Attorney General’s one case,” Busol said in an interview with “”. The lawyer herself fled Kyiv shortly after the start of the war and now lives in Regensburg.
“What we know through word of mouth from acquaintances of survivors from the [Ukraine] It’s horrifying to hear,” she adds. “I’ve had reports of gang rape, child rape and sexual violence after the killing of family members.” In most cases, the victims were women from cities occupied by Russian forces in the east and south of the country.
Rape as a weapon of war not new
Sexual violence in wars is not a new phenomenon. For as long as armed conflict has existed, rape has been used as a weapon to humiliate both women and men and to destroy entire communities. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also pointed this out in a much-noticed speech in the Bundestag last week and reported on her meetings with women in Srbrenica who had to suffer such a fate.
The systematic rapes in the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Rwanda have led to their being described as a “weapon of war” and banned internationally. Since June 2008, the United Nations has recognized sexualized violence as a crime against humanity and has called for an immediate stop to the method as a war tactic.
But as far as the actual consequences are concerned, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is skeptical. In early March, Kuleba said he had little confidence that international organizations like the International Criminal Court in The Hague would hold Russian soldiers accountable. “Of course, when Russian soldiers rape women in Ukrainian cities, it is difficult to talk about the effectiveness of international law,” said the foreign minister at a round of talks in London, which he attended virtually.
Presenting the current issue, UNFPA Director Natalia Kanem spoke of criminals “who see the tragedy of war as an opportunity to target women and girls,” referring to Ukraine. The authors warn that sexual violence could increase and the number of unwanted pregnancies could reach “dizzying” heights.
Sources: “”, “”, “”, “”, “”, “”, with AFP material
Source: Stern
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