Women in War: the torture of women in Ukraine and their undying resilience

Photo By: Evgeniy Maloletka-AP Photo

Asking for yourself to be killed is not an easy request to make. But it is the last wish made by the woman in the picture above. As the woman reached out to caress her baby, all she could feel was blood that ran down her lower abdomen. Her pelvis had been crushed and her hip detached. Wounded, on the brink of death and realising that she was about to lose her baby,

the last words she uttered were, “Kill me now”

Her request was granted.

The woman along with her unborn baby died on a stretcher. Attempts were made to resuscitate her but they were unsuccessful. The baby was delivered by emergency c section but showed no signs of life. The only fortune that the woman and her baby were entitled to was that they would not end up in a mass grave. Her body along with that of her lifeless baby was taken away by her husband and father, to be buried beside countless other victims of the bloody Ukraine war.

“So yeah, do it over there … Ukrainian women there. Rape them, yeah,”

These were the orders given to a Russian soldier by his wife. She is heard giving permission to her husband to rape woman and to use “protection” whilst doing it.

“Don’t tell me anything, understand!?” she adds, jokingly. The husband himself is startled by these comments and confirms if his wife is actually commissioning these horrific acts by asking, “Uh-huh. So I should rape and not tell you anything?”

“Yes, so that I wouldn’t know anything. Why do you ask?” the woman says.

“Can I really?” he asks again, incredulously.

“Yeah, I allow you — just use protection,” she tells him with a giggle.

“OK,” he finally says.

This horrific conversation came to light when the call between the couple was intercepted by the Security Service of Ukraine and it was posted online. This harrowing conversation between the couple highlights how even some average Russian citizens are prejudiced against the Ukrainians and how deep embedded the hate really is in their minds. To dislike a community is one thing, but to order the rape of their woman is a crime against God himself.

This news comes to light after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky publicly accused Russian soldiers of raping hundreds of Ukranian woman and sexually harassing children. There are numerous stories about the sufferings of women in this bloody war. A 50 year old man recently recounted her agonising story to the BBC. She was at home with her husband when a Russian soldier barged into her home unannounced and forcefully took her to a house nearby their residence. Her husband ran after them but was brought down by a round of bullets. He held her at gunpoint and ordered her to strip off her clothes and threatened to kill her if she didn’t listen to his commands. Helpless and defenceless, the woman described only as ‘Anna’ was raped by the Russian soldier. Anna says that four other soldiers walked in while she was being raped and took him away. She never saw him again, and believes that the men had apprehended their fellow soldier and took him away. Anna came back from this horrendous ordeal only to find her husband shot in the stomach and left for dead.

Her husband could not be given medical care because of the fighting taking place in the streets. When he was finally taken to the hospital, he succumbed to his injuries two days later. Anna’s neighbours told the BBC that the same soldier had attacked and assaulted another woman living nearby. Her naked body was found by the police, her throat slit with a deep cut across her throat. The stories of women in this war are gut wrenching and numerous in number. Woman are getting robbed, assaulted, harassed, raped and killed. Their bodies are violated and left for dead in the streets. Their faces are so disfigured that they cannot even be recognised and claimed by their loved ones.

The ones that try to escape from Russian convoys are mothers, carrying their young children across borders wishing for safety from the gunfire. They leave their husbands and brothers to fight against the Russian invaders in search for a safer environment for their innocent children. They are powerless and all they can do for the ones they left behind is pray. Pray for the safety of their loved ones and for the end of this war that has destroyed so many lives. Pray for better times, for peace and security.

Snejana, 41, from Odessa, together with her son David, 11, at a temporary placement center
in Scoreni, Straseni district, Moldova. Photo: Maxime Fossat/UN Women