Widespread Sexual Violence in Occupied Ukraine: Survivors' Harrowing Accounts

[Social Media]

 

In the occupied regions of Ukraine, the terror experienced by civilians and soldiers extends far beyond the battlefield. Survivors of Russian detention are beginning to speak out about a systematic campaign of sexual violence that appears to be a deliberate strategy to subjugate the Ukrainian population. Among those brave enough to share their stories is Roman Shapovalenko, a 39-year-old farm manager from Kherson.

On August 25, 2022, a day after Ukraine’s Independence Day, Shapovalenko was at home when three armed and masked officers from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stormed into his house.

 

They were looking for any evidence that could incriminate him. A message on his phone that referred to Russian soldiers as “orcs” — a derogatory term used by Ukrainians — was enough for the FSB officers. Shapovalenko was tied up, blindfolded, and forced into an unmarked car. For days, he endured repeated electrocution in his genital area, threats of rape with a glass bottle, and was led to believe that he could be sterilized. 

“They seemed to have a fetish for genitalia,” Shapovalenko recalled. “Sometimes the door would open, and they would say: ‘We’re going to take out our batons and we’re going to rape everyone here.’” Despite the terror, Shapovalenko tried to use humor as a coping mechanism, but it often led to more violence. “I made a little joke, and they didn’t like it. I got punched for that.”

 

 

Shapovalenko’s experience is not unique. Human rights monitors and Ukrainian prosecutors report rampant sexual violence by Russian forces against detainees since the invasion began in 2022. The latest United Nations Security Council annual report on conflict-related sexual violence documented 85 cases in Ukraine in 2023 alone, with men comprising a significant portion of the victims. A separate UN report found that 39 out of 60 interviewed male Ukrainian prisoners of war had been sexually abused while in Russian detention. 

 

CNN interviewed several male survivors, including Roman Chernenko, a 29-year-old intelligence officer. Chernenko, known by his call sign “Omen,” was captured by Russian troops in the Mariupol area and spent seven months in a “punishment cell” in Olenivka, Donetsk. He described daily torture sessions that included genital electrocution with a military field telephone known as “Tapik.” “Tapik is a military phone with two wires. One is connected to your balls, the other to your finger, and they just keep turning the current up,” Chernenko explained. He believed that officers from Russia’s GRU, the FSB, and the Federal Penitentiary Service all participated in the torture. “They laughed when they tortured me… they told me that my mother was being f***ed by Chechens. They took me to be shot twice, they threatened me with rape.”

 

 

Sexual violence against detainees appears to be a deliberate tactic used by Russian forces to humiliate and subjugate Ukrainians. Anna Sosonska, acting chief of the conflict-related sexual violence division in Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General, noted the systematic nature of these abuses. “We see it over and over again in different regions under occupation. They use the same method of committing sexual violence, the same method of humiliation, the same method of how they explain it to their victims,” Sosonska said. 

 

Andrii, another Kherson resident, was held in a detention facility where he heard the screams of fellow detainees being tortured. “We were kept in the basement of an office building. It was a small room with no furniture, we slept on cardboard and used a bucket to go to the toilet,” he recalled. Andrii described a particularly horrifying incident where a man was raped with a baton in the corridor for everyone to hear and see. “I was the last one to be taken in for interrogation, so I could hear them all being tortured in the next room. I couldn’t hear the conversations, only the screams and the moans. It was impossible to sleep because of these screams.”

 

The Ukrainian ombudsman and military intelligence service have identified key perpetrators within the FSB and Rosgvardia, a paramilitary police force. Among those accused are Aleksandr Naumenko, deputy head of Rosgvardia in Russia’s Rostov region, and Dmitry Laikov, an officer with the FSB’s Department for the Defense of Constitutional Order and Fight against Terrorism. Naumenko is suspected of overseeing sexual torture in Kherson, personally ordering the abuse of several victims. Ukrainian prosecutors have issued indictments against 42 Russian officers, filed 19 indictments against 28 individuals, and sentenced five people, though all trials have been held in absentia due to the absence of the accused.

 

Oleksii Sivak, a 39-year-old sailor from Kherson, was another victim of this brutal campaign. Sivak had been helping distribute supplies and organizing assistance for his community when he was detained. “We already knew about these torture rooms; we knew that people do not return from there,” he said. Sivak described being beaten and tortured with electric current. “They called it ‘the lie detector’ and they were obviously having fun when spinning the dynamo, asking me ‘do you want to call Zelensky?’” He recounted how the torture escalated when the clamps were moved from his ears to his genitals, accompanied by threats of sterilization. “They wanted to humiliate me. It’s obvious. What do you do to cause a man the most pain? You hurt his wife or his genitals.”

 

Despite the trauma, survivors like Sivak and Shapovalenko are determined to speak out and seek justice. Ukraine is working with international organizations to support victims and bring perpetrators to justice. Specialized training for civil servants and local officials on recognizing and addressing conflict-related sexual violence is part of this effort. The International Criminal Court (ICC) and other international bodies are collecting evidence to prosecute those responsible for these atrocities. Sosonska emphasized the importance of holding not only the direct perpetrators but also their commanders accountable. “We can say that the leadership, not only the perpetrators but also the management, is responsible – they gave permission or orders to commit these crimes,” she said.

 

As the conflict continues, the true scale of sexual violence committed in occupied Ukraine may never be fully known. Many victims are reluctant to come forward due to stigma and shame. However, the testimonies of survivors like Shapovalenko, Chernenko, Andrii, and Sivak provide a crucial insight into the brutal tactics used by Russian forces and underscore the urgent need for international intervention and support to stop these atrocities and bring the perpetrators to justice.

 

Reflecting on his ordeal, Shapovalenko expressed a poignant message: “I want to tell everyone, tell the international community, that it is not like they came, occupied us, stood there with machine guns and left. No, it wasn’t like that. And the most terrible thing is not what I am telling you now. The most terrible thing is that it is happening now in the occupied territories.”

 

Credit: CNN 2024-05-31

 

Get our Daily Newsletter - Click HERE to subscribe