After Rapes by Russian Soldiers, a Painful Quest for Justice

KYIV, Ukraine — Every day, Viktoriya has to walk past the house where she was raped by a Russian soldier the same age as her teenage son.

In March, Russian troops arrived in her village of two streets, near the Kyiv suburb Borodianka. Soon afterward, she said, two of them raped her and a neighbor, killed two men, including her neighbor’s husband, and destroyed several homes.

“If you do not think about it all, you can live,” Viktoriya said in an interview in the village on a recent rainy day. “But it is certainly not forgotten.”

She is cooperating with prosecutors because she said she wants the perpetrators to feel the “lifelong pain” they left her with. “I want them to be punished,” she said.

It is uncertain whether they will ever be able to do so, and it may take many years for them to decide. During the weeks of Russian occupation in the Kyiv suburbs as well as elsewhere, rapes were one of the many atrocities that Russian troops inflicted upon Ukrainian civilians. However, it is difficult to prosecute the assaults. Evidence is scarce and victims are traumatized, making it difficult for them to testify. Most of the soldiers accused have disappeared.

Ukrainian prosecutors claim they are investigating thousands in war crimes, including executions-style killings and the indiscriminate bombardment of civilians. Among them, “dozens” involve rapes, said Kateryna Duchenko, who oversees rape cases at the office of Ukraine’s general prosecutor — a low percentage that represents only a fraction of the suffering. She said that the oldest victim was 82 years of age.

Still, the Ukrainian authorities continue to fight for justice in cases of sexual violence. Last Thursday, in a different case from Viktoriya’s, prosecutors opened the first trial of rape as a war crime. A Russian soldier was charged with breaking into a Bohdanivka home east of Kyiv and raping a woman while her child was present. He was also accused of murdering her husband. Viktoriya and her neighbour claimed that they were raped in their village, Kyiv the day before.

According to news media reports, the 32-year-old soldier on trial, Mikhail Romanov was identified by investigators using Social Media. The survivor also recognized him. Although he is being tried in absentia by Human Rights Watch, the case will still send a strong signal to victims of wartime sex violence, Yulia Gorbunova (a senior researcher on Ukraine at Human Rights Watch) said.

“It shows that the government is serious about prosecuting rape cases,” she said.

Russian forces retreated from the areas surrounding Kyiv, including Viktoriya’s village, throughout March. In the weeks that followed, Ukrainian authorities were inundated with accounts of atrocities, according to Lyudmyla Denisova, who was serving as the country’s top human rights advocate at the time. From April 1 until May 15, her office’s psychological help hotline received 1,500 calls from people seeking assistance to cope with sexual crimes, torture and abuse, said Oleksandra Kvitko, who manages the hotline.

“A mother called to report that her 9-month-old had been raped with a candle,” Ms. Kvitko said. “They tied the mother up and forced her to watch.” The mother had called saying that she wanted to take her child and jump out of the window. Ms. Kvitko claimed that it was her job give the mother something to live for.

The hotline has received hundreds of calls about sexual assault, but many victims were in fragile mental states, Ms. Kvitko said. They were not ready to give official testimony to the authorities.

Prosecutors collect all physical evidence and ask the victim for testimony in order to investigate rapes. An examination of the victim’s body can also be used as evidence. However, in cases where rapes take place on occupied territory, this exam is not always possible immediately and may not show any evidence of a violent sexual encounter.

In the absence of DNA matches, prosecutors try to rely on other forensic evidence — such as torn clothing, and evidence of cuts and bruises on the victim.

Even when it is possible to determine a perpetrator’s identity, most of them are not in Ukrainian custody, as was the case with Mr. Romanov, the Russian soldier who was put on trial last week.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not respond to requests for comment on Mr. Romanov’s case. It has denied war crimes allegations against its soldiers.

Viktoriya (42), and several neighbors provided accounts about the night of the attack to The New York Times, but only their first names were allowed. Viktoriya requested that her village not be called because it is so small that no one outsiders would be capable of identifying her. She also feared harassment.

Viktoriya stated that on the night of March 8, there was a knock at their door. Three Russian soldiers entered, smelling of alcohol.

They forced Viktoriya to accompany them to a neighboring house, where they had planned to take away another woman, but they decided she was “too chubby,” she said.

The drunken trio took her down the village road to a third house, where a neighbor named Valentyna lived with her daughter, Natasha, 43; Natasha’s husband, Oleksandr; and their 15-year-old son.

The soldiers demanded Oleksandr’s wife as he opened the door. “I’m also Russian,” he protested, telling them that he had been born and raised in Crimea. Viktoriya observed as he pleaded for them to take him.

She claimed that one of the soldiers had killed him in his front door.

Viktoriya, Natasha were marched by the soldiers at gunpoint to the Russians’ headquarters. Viktoriya stated that Oleg, a soldier, took Natasha and Danya, a Danya named soldier, took her. “When he was leading me there, I asked how old he was,’’ she said. “He said he was 19 years old.”

“I told him my son was 19,” she said. Oleg, the commander that attacked Natasha was 21, said she.

Viktoriya stated that Danya had asked him if he had a girlfriend. He said he did, that she was 17 and that he had never had sexual relations with her.

“He was so cruel, he treated me not as a woman, as a mother, but as a prostitute,” Viktoriya said. “He raped me, and in front of my eyes, they killed Oleksandr so cruelly. They were so hateful to me. I wish they would die along with Putin.”

Valentyna, who was interviewing at the entrance of the house where Oleksandr died, stated that her daughter had returned in early morning to search for her son. She wasn’t able to say much.

“She was like a stone, she walled herself off,” Valentyna said.

The family buried Oleksandr at their home, near a birch seedling. Valentyna bought one tree for each member of the family, in the hope that they would grow for many years before they died.

A month later, police investigators arrived to exhume the body. The women gave statements about their experiences that they hope will lead them to trial. Prosecutors confirmed that they were investigating the assaults as well as Oleksandr’s murder. Viktor, a neighbor, confirmed to The Times Viktoriya had visited his house that night and told him she had been raped. He said she stayed until the Russians left — fearing the soldiers would search for her in her home.

Natasha’s relatives convinced her to leave the village with her son. Now, she is temporarily staying in an Austrian town with her son. She communicates with a Ukrainian psychologist, a fellow refugee.

Valentyna is her mother and she lives alone, with only her goats, chickens and cats. The Russians killed her dog March 19, just 10 days after they fled the village. Despite the stigma and conservatism in Ukraine about rape, she encouraged Viktoriya to talk to a reporter about their experiences.

Viktoriya is still living in the village on the same road that she was taken at gunpoint. The remains of the occupation can still be seen. Outside a home near the village entrance, someone had painted a stark white V, a symbol of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Nearby, another fence bore an inexpertly painted “CCCP,” the Cyrillic acronym for “USSR.”

But along the rest of the road, the signs are plaintive appeals for mercy from the Russian soldiers: “People live here.” “Children.” “Elderly.”

Viktoriya said that she didn’t want to leave Ukraine without her husband, who, as a man of military age, cannot leave the country until the end of the war. She said that it was difficult to remain in the village because everyone knew what had happened. She believes those who fled during wartime and returned have blamed those who stayed for the destruction.

“This war was supposed to reconcile the people, and they got worse,” she said. “This war broke everyone’s psyche.”

She said she has recommenced smoking, which she claimed she had stopped before the war. She is also using sedatives. She hopes her tormentors are punished. She stated that she will not be able to answer all the questions she still has.

“Why do they have such aggression against our people? Why did they come here, burn people out of their homes, and bring grief?”

Evelina RiabenkoDiana Poladova contributed reporting.