Raped by Russian soldiers – Ukrainian women raise their voices to overcome stigma

As the Russian invading troops approached Kyiv and the first explosions were heard in the suburbs, Daria Zymenko sought refuge in Gavronshchina, her parents’ village near the Ukrainian capital.

Soon after, the Russians took control of Gavronshchyna. One day, several drunken and armed soldiers stormed the family home and said that Zymenko, an illustrator, had to be taken away for questioning.

What then happened to the young woman is part of what Ukrainian authorities say is a large-scale, systematic campaign of sexual abuse by the Russian invaders.

Zymenko is one of the survivors who have overcome their fear and shame and speak out about the horrors she and countless other Ukrainian women have experienced.

On March 28, 2022, soldiers took Zymenko to an abandoned house and ordered her to undress.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be an interrogation,” said Zymenko, a 33-year-old with piercing blue eyes. “It lasted two hours.”

The next day, the soldiers returned and raped her again. Soon after, Ukrainian forces regained control of the village.

– Thousands of victims –

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian authorities say they have documented over 300 cases of sexual violence by Russian troops.

However, “the true extent of sexual violence is difficult to imagine,” said Oleksandra Matviichuk, head of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022.

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Activists estimate that the number of such cases runs into the thousands because many victims prefer to remain silent due to the stigma associated with sexual violence.

“It is very painful to speak,” Zymenko told AFP in Paris.

“But today I feel it is necessary to explain what I went through, because Russia continues to torture people and commit sexual crimes in Ukraine on a daily basis.”

In 2023, Zymenko became a member of SEMA Ukraine, an organization that brings together Ukrainian women who have suffered sexual and gender-based violence as a result of the Russian invasion.

She said it was “extremely important” to speak on behalf of those who cannot testify because they are either in Russian-occupied territories or fear stigmatization.

“I want to break down this taboo and prevent victims from being stigmatized.”

Last week, she and several other women attended a press conference in Paris about the “mass rapes” by Russian forces in Ukraine.

Kiev and the West accuse Russia of numerous war crimes in Ukraine, but Moscow denies these allegations.

– ‘Get in a bathtub’ –

Alisa Kovalenko, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, estimates that about 80 percent of women who are victims of sexual violence remain silent.

“But the 20 percent who raise their voices already represent a revolution,” Kovalenko, 36, whose films have been shown at international film festivals this year, including Cannes, said in an interview with AFP.

She attracted international attention in 2015 with her film “Alisa in Warland” about the conflict in eastern Ukraine. Kovalenko, who has a young son, is currently finishing her latest film “Traces”, which is about women who suffered sexual violence during the invasion.

She herself was sexually abused in 2014 while filming “Alisa at War” in the Donetsk region, the year Russia annexed Crimea and supported a separatist uprising in the post-Soviet country.

She was arrested as she was leaving the region on May 15, 2014. “They were convinced I was a sniper,” she said. Pro-Russian separatists held her for several days and threatened to cut off her ears and fingers.

She was also abused when a Russian officer took her to an apartment in the occupied city of Kramatorsk. “He forced me to take off my clothes and get into a bathtub,” she said. “Then I was abused.”

Despite her determination to talk about it, Kovalenko finds it difficult to share the details of what happened. When asked if her relatives knew about the rape, she cried. Only recently has she found the strength to tell them.

After the attack, she threw herself into work and volunteered to fight in Ukraine after the large-scale invasion.

– ‘Cannot heal’ –

Activists say the taboo surrounding sexual violence is gradually being lifted in Ukraine.

Iryna Dovgan, the 62-year-old founder of SEMA Ukraine, said that due to the ongoing Russian war of aggression, more women are now willing to come forward.

“Other women are at risk of assault: this is our outcry and our cry for help,” Dovgan said last week.

Dovgan, originally from the Donetsk region, said she was arrested after pro-Russian separatists took up arms against Kyiv in 2014. She was accused of supporting the Ukrainian army and mistreated, she said.

Zymenko said she “first decided to forget this terrible experience,” but she suffered from regular anxiety attacks and turned to SEMA Ukraine for psychological help.

Kovalenko, who joined the organization in 2019, said she still has nightmares.

“You can’t heal after an experience like that,” she said. “You can only feel better.”