Rape as a weapon — Russia’s crimes against women

0:00 What happens to a society when rape becomes a weapon of war? When sexual violence is not the result of a loss of control, but strategically planned, militarily tolerated, politically ignored? In this podcast from In Crisis Mode, I speak with women in Ukraine who had to witness and endure this. It is a particularly horrific side of this war, which is already terrible enough.

0:23 The stories you will hear, as always in this podcast, are not easy or comfortable to bear. Still, a trigger warning and a note that the show notes include information for people who have experienced violence outside of war or need help. One time I was in such a state, shocked, that I had no idea what I should do, what would happen to me. I just didn't understand it.

0:51 Even though deep down I already knew what could happen, Und das ist genau das was passiert. Ich war beobachten, verabschied. Nur die nächsten Tag kam ein Officer, der war surprised, dass ich da war. Someone hat sich angefangen, was ich da war. Ich war in der Karte, auf dem Boden, auf der Karte, mit mir auf sich herum.

1:14 Ich war Angst, dass jemand nach mir kommt. Kann ich hier smoke? In Crisis Mode, the podcast from Conflict Zones with Jan Jess. Music. Hello and welcome to a new episode of In Crisis Mode. My name is Jan Jessen. I'm the Head of Politics at NRZ and work as a War and Crisis Reporter for the Funker Media Group.

1:47 You can read my reports, among others, in the WAZ, the NRZ, the Berliner Morgenpost, the Hamburger Abendblatt, or online on our platforms. Today's episode is about another brutal chapter in this war of aggression waged by Russia against Ukraine, which began in February 2022 and has escalated further in the days just before this podcast was recorded.

2:08 You've probably seen it. In recent days and weeks, Russian forces have been bombing Ukraine with particularly intense force. The peace negotiations that Trump, the American president, wanted to initiate and did initiate have quite obviously come to nothing. Putin seems in these days to be putting all his cards on the table trying to force Ukraine to its knees to make it surrender unconditionally.

2:32 There are many debates on the international stage about how Ukraine can be helped. But these particular days are especially difficult. A few weeks ago, I was traveling through Ukraine, of course, also directly at the front, where the military situation is currently developing very negatively for Ukraine, to be honest.

2:48 Russian forces are currently pushing forward very strongly, especially in the Donetsk region, specifically around the city of Pokrovsk. As I said, it's a relatively difficult Vielen Dank. und Irina. Two names, two fates and a system that deliberately seeks to break the dignity of women. I was, among other places, in Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine we've already talked about several times in this podcast.

3:26 We'll link to the relevant episodes in the show notes. Kurson ist eine Stadt, die von Russischen Truppen war, die nur regionalen Kapitel die Russlands managed zu bringen unter der Kontrolle nach dem Start der Invasion in Februar 2022, aber die dann liberiert wurde von Ukrainian forces in Autumn 2022.

3:45 Die Problem in Kurson ist, die Stadt liegt in der Runde von Russland. Es ist siehlt daily, also attackiert von Drones. Und ja, Leben dort ist extrem gefährlich und problematisch. Das ist wo ich Maria treffen, in der kleinen Kaffee im Hintergrund. It was a somewhat surreal encounter, of course. Outside, the sound of artillery fire. Inside, cheerful music.

4:09 Slightly bizarre, you have to say. Especially in light of what Maria told me. She is 49 years old, used to work as a lawyer, and became the victim of a war crime. One that, in my view, is far too rarely documented. Maria comes from a small town near Kursen. I shouldn't name that town, nor should I mention Maria's real name. The reason is that her parents and her brother still live in that town, which is under Russian occupation.

4:35 She's afraid that if her full name or the name of the town is mentioned, harm could come to them. In that town she worked as a lawyer before the war. When the town was occupied, right after the start of the Russian invasion, the occupiers tried to pressure her into working for them, into collaborating.

4:52 She refused. Like in many cases under Russian occupation, she was arrested, subjected to heavy interrogation, and abused. She was kept in a cell for a long time, crammed in with other women, and later taken to a farm. There was, as she told me, another young man, Andri, who had been arrested along with her and was also taken out of town.

5:12 She had been informed by the Russian occupiers that she had to leave the occupied territory because she was considered useless and because she resisted. Therefore, she was to be returned to Ukrainian controlled territory. When they were both transported out of the town in an armoured vehicle and driven toward the front, she overheard a radio message.

5:31 The driver said, I've got two people here. And the voice on the other end asked, What kind of people? And the driver replied, One's a young man, you can use him for trench digging and fortifications, and with the girl, you can do whatever you want. And that's when she realized this was heading in a very dark direction.

5:49 She arrived at the farm and was taken outside. And then the horror began. She was raped by several soldiers stationed there. And she also explained to me exactly who these men were. Well, there were also people from the Caucasus there, As the major who basically saved me explained, he said it was the 6th Company, a tough unit, mainly used to throw people onto the front lines.

6:17 There were both contract soldiers and convicts. There was everything. People of Caucasian origin, some with narrow eyes, maybe Bashkirs or Burjats. I don't know exactly who they all were. And also some with Slavic appearance. Das sind die Türkeischen Menschen aus Russland. Die Buryats kommen aus Siberia und sind auch eine ethnische Minorität.

6:45 Und besonders am Anfang der Krieg, es war das Fall, dass die Mitglieder der Minorität der Russischen Armee verletzten. In der Anfang, sie verletzten Menschen aus, zum Beispiel, Moskau oder St. Petersburg. Petersburg, weil sie glaubten, dass es besser, dass die Menschen nicht viel rebelen würden. So it was mainly members of minorities who were deployed in the first years of the war, and Maria tried to remember her tormentors.

7:12 That was, of course, difficult, and especially in such a conversation. You're sitting across from a woman who has experienced horrors at the hands of men who did terrible things to her. You're a man sitting in front of her, and that's obviously a difficult situation. And I didn't want to push too hard, of course, because it was clear that just remembering what had happened to her was already really distressing for her.

7:34 At times, she had tears in her eyes, she kept taking deep breaths, and eventually she said, I have to stand up and go smoke a cigarette now. Es war wirklich sehr verdensvoll für sie, und vielleicht re-traumatisend. Und generell, wenn wir als Journalisten sprechen mit den Vizientern oder Verrückten, es ist immer wie ein TIGHTROPE.

7:57 Es ist immer schwierig. Auf der einen Seite, natürlich, du willst, die Person zu hören. Auf der anderen Seite, du willst, sie in eine Stelle zu fühlen, wo sie komplett unwell sind. Und mit dieser Gespräch, das war besonders intensiv. So ich nicht zu viel pushen, nicht zu viel zu sagen. I think that would have been completely inappropriate.

8:15 In any case, and I found this particularly striking, Maria was rescued by a Russian officer. She experienced this mass rape, this horror in the night, and then, as she said at the beginning, she was crouched in the corner trying to cover herself somehow, and then this officer came in, and he asked, what's going on with her? What is happening here?

8:34 And then he ordered his men to stop immediately. I don't think that was necessarily out of compassion, but rather because they had gone completely over the line. Und er hat sie aus der Situation gemacht. Und ich fand, als ich gesagt, ein Remarkable Aspekt, dass sie diese Erinnerung hat. Das, dass sie das, dass sie das, dass sie das Horror an sie hat, es war ein Russischer der Russisch ausgeteilt hat.

8:54 Und, by the way, das ist etwas, ich habe gehört von anderen Wurzonen, auch. Ich habe die Balkan Wars gehört. Es hat sich da, dass es, militias oder militiamen, die Frauen abzule, und wieder und wieder, die Leute in die Strukturen kamen, die in die Strukturen im Bedarf, und gesagt, Stop! Not so. Und generell, eine muss sagen, diese Bitter-Truth sagen. Rape und Mass-rape sind ein Teil der Krieg. Das ist brutal, dass das so.

9:17 Rape ist wieder und wieder als eine Weapon der Krieg. Das ist nicht nur die Situation in der Ukraine, es ist die Situation in jeder Krieg-Zone in der Welt. Und ich habe es selbst gesehen und viele Störungen darüber gesprochen. In Iraq, for example, when the so-called Islamic State established its Terror Caliphate, more than 6,000 Yazidi women and children were abducted.

9:38 The women were used as sex slaves in a very brutal way. To this day, around 2,000 Yazidi women remain missing. That, too, was a deliberate effort to break the Yazidi people, to destroy their dignity, to shatter that community. And it seems that something similar might be happening in Ukraine. In any case, Maria also told me how she got out of that situation.

10:02 And when he, the Major, found out what had happened, he said, yes indeed, you're in their database. You won't get through anywhere anymore. The only way is to get out over the bridge that leads further on, there by Minskoje, then into the Zaporozhia region and on to Zaporozhia itself. Only that way, through the front line.

10:27 But you'll hardly make it. I said, I'll take the risk. Maybe I'll make it. But he said, calm down. No one will touch you here anymore. I've given the order that you are to be left alone. That somehow calmed me down. The database she spoke about, that's a database of the Russian Secret Service. They interrogated her and, as mentioned, she ended up in this database as someone who was, so to speak, undesirable in the occupied territories, obviously.

10:56 And it was her luck that her name was found there because otherwise this major might not have helped her. And yes, that's how she got out of that area. She told me about it in great detail, walking dozens of kilometres on foot. And to this day she doesn't know how she really made it out, but she survived. She made it out.

11:14 Of course she is still deeply wounded in her soul, but she survived this horror nonetheless. That of course was not the case for all women. Olha Czerniak, that was another woman I met there. We're not playing you any original audio from her now, but she also told me about another aspect of these abuses, und es ist etwas, dass ich wieder und wieder gehört von Menschen, insbesondere von Kursen.

11:35 Nach der liberation dieser Stadt, ich ging da multiple times und sprach mit Menschen, die durch die Ocupation leben. Und sie auch sagten mir, wie brutal die Ocupation regime war, dass jeder, die sogar noch nicht für die Ukraine arbeiten, war unter extrem schrecklichen Konsequen. Und Olha Cherniak sagten mir, dass sie ihre Sonne benutzt, um sie zu machen, zu machen, dass sie eigentlich für die Arbeit in Kursen gearbeitet hat.

11:59 Er war nicht politisch oder anders aktiv, aber sie war verletzend, weil sie eine neighbour verletzten, sie war spying für Ukraine. Und dann sie brutale Abussehbar, sie beatet ihn, sie verletzten elektroden zu sein und elektricitet ihn. Eventually, er war schreit und wunderschön, und sie hatte zu hören, und sie hat zu hören, zu all das.

12:20 Und an einem Moment, sie gab es ein Falsches, ein falsches, natürlich, weil sie gesagt, ich nicht tun, sie dann durfte eine lange, lange Zeit. 280 days in Russian captivity, also under horrific conditions. She said she had to go to the toilet in front of the guards, she had to shower in front of them, when that was even allowed, which only happened every few weeks.

12:42 There were no hygiene products for the women, so in essence there may not have been rape, but definitely sexual abuse in what happened to Olha. Olha now works for the self-help organisation SEMA. That stands for Survivors of Sexual Violence from Eastern Ukraine. And that's an organisation by survivors, for survivors.

13:02 It was founded by Irina Dovgan. She herself was once a prisoner and experienced that horror firsthand. However, this was before the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022. She experienced it earlier, when the war in the Donbass began in 2014. This war, as all Ukrainians say, didn't just start in 2022.

13:25 It began back in 2014, during the so-called Euromaiden. You might remember, back then, the pro-Russian president Yanukovych was overthrown by people protesting against him in Kyiv. Then in eastern Ukraine, a separatist movement arose, calling this a coup, heavily supported by Russia, and through military conflict, took control of Donetsk and Luhansk, two major cities, which remain occupied to this day.

13:50 And it was during that time that Irina experienced what she had to endure, and she founded this organization because she felt abandoned by the Ukrainian state. Since 2014, these women have been abandoned by the state, mit ihren Trauma, mit ihren Psychologischen Problemen. Sexual violence, abuse, rape – these are, of course, still taboo topics in virtually every war to this day.

14:17 Women who have experienced such things often feel ashamed to go public with it, are afraid of being re-traumatized. Sometimes there simply aren't any support centers or contact points for them. And I've seen this on other battlefields as well. As I said, I mentioned the example of Iraq, where those mass rapes of Yazidi women took place.

14:35 There too, it was extremely difficult for the women to return to their communities. It is very difficult to bring this topic into communities to even get a conversation going about it. Also, es ist immer sehr, sehr schwierig und wie ich sagte, das applies nicht nur zu Ukraine, nicht nur zu Irak, aber auch zu anderen Wurzonen.

14:53 Und in diesem Bereich ist es natürlich ein tolles Ding, wenn Frauen zusammenkommen, zu unterstützen und zu entwickeln ein Raum, um zu sprechen über solche Erfahrungen zu sprechen. Und das ist genau das CIMA für CIMA. CIMA unterstützt die Survivoren, hilft mit Therapie, mit Geld und mit entsprechenden Strukturen.

15:10 Und Irina sagt, ja, natürlich, Unterstützung east die Schmerz, aber es nicht schützt. Aber ich möchte es wieder einmal klar, dass es einfach ein Teil des Lebens. Es ist einfach ein Teil des Lebens, nichts mehr und nichts mehr. Russia, Irina, und andere Ukrainian sources claim, es auch, die UN-Nationen, systematisch benutzt sexualized violence als eine Weapon, als eine means of control und als ein Instrument für die Ukraine identifizieren.

15:39 Das ist auch ein weiteres Verrückter, Das ist natürlich auch über die Humiliation. Und du kannst du, wenn Hamas das Unprecedented attack auf Israel in Oktober 2023 waren auch verrückte scenes von Rape. Der NOVA Festival, das Technofestival, wo die Leute einfach nur überrascht und einfach Spaß haben. Und dann Hamas Kommandos, mit den Anliegen oder Allied militias, kamen in. Und sie nicht nur murder und abdukt Leute, Das war eine sehr lange Zeit.

16:39 A co-ordinate that shows, I saw who it was, and maybe somewhere there will be justice. Und sie hat das sehr stark gesagt. Und ja, ich kann es verstehen, von ihr perspective. Ich weiß nicht, ich kann es nicht glauben. Aber ich hoffe so. Ich hoffe, dass die 6th Company was bombed, nachdem ich wo sie waren.

17:04 Das ist ein Teil der Wahrheit. Du kannst nicht verhüben solche Geschichte in detail, aber es gibt viele testimonien, und Statements von Ukrainer Frauen die oder haben reportiert, was sie zu tun. Aber Sie können es auch in den Niembros der Kampfsgesgesen die jetzt haben, die die Ukrainian Prosecutor-Generals-Office für den Krieg von Sexualis-Violenz in der Kontext der Krieg, dass nicht alle Kampfsgesgesen noch nie kommen.

17:27 So far, nur über 340 Kampfsgesges haben, die Ukrainian Prosecutor-Generals-Office gesessen. Sie nur folgen, wenn sie mit der Appropriate Witness-Statemens haben, wenn die Frauen willingen zu openen und sprechen über was sie zu ihnen. Und auf der einen Seite, da sind natürlich auch viele Frauen, die sich jetzt zu tun haben, Vielleicht weil sie Angst, oder aus Scham, oder für irgendwelche anderen Gründe.

17:49 Es ist estimated, dass die Zahl der Unreported Cases in den Territories in dem Jahrzehnten in 2022 verletzt ist 20x höher als die Cases die eigentliche bekannt sind, so far. Und auf dem Punkt, wir wissen nicht, was passiert in den Bereichen in den Bereichen der Russland in den letzten Jahren. Wir wissen nicht, was in Donetsk und Luhansk ist seit 2014.

18:11 Wir wissen nicht, was in den Regionen von Zaporizhsia und Khezon passiert ist, die noch immer von Russischen Fortschritten sind. So es ist einfach eine große, größe, oder black-box, wo wir einfach nicht wissen, was passiert. As erwähnt, die UN-Nation hat immer und klarer Contemmen und Kritikiert das, dass Russland ist, dass Russland verletzt und benutzt sexualisiertes Vierungen als eine Weapon der Krieg.

18:35 Und deshalb, was Maria sagte, was Irina sagte oder was Olga sagte, is certainly credible, and generally speaking, I believe we should first of all believe the victims, and if they tell such stories, why would anyone make something like that up? Es ist absurd. Als ich gesagt habe, was Maria experienced standen als ein Beispiel für viele Fälle.

18:56 Und das ist nicht die Verhandlung des Krieges. Es ist Systematisch. Es ist eine Strategie zu brechen. Und es ist auch die Sache, dass nicht nur Frauen sind, die Sexualität in dieser Krieg sind. Earlier, ich erwähnte Olga's son und wie er war. Das auch passiert zu Männern. Es gibt auch die Menschen, die Ukrainer von Kriegern.

19:17 Das ist auch schon wieder und wieder und wieder, dass es sich benutzt als eine Weapon, als eine psychologische Weapon, um zu verbrechen, oder einfach zu verbrechen Menschen, zu verbrechen Menschen, zu verbrechen Menschen. Und Irina sagt wieder ganz klar, warum diese Weapon ist in dieser Weise. Sehr lange nicht nur uns in der Organisationen, sondern mit all unseren Behörden-Gruppen, dass das Sexualität für Russland ist eine Art von Krieg.

19:52 Recently, there has been intense discussion, not only within our organization, but also among all human rights groups, that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war by Russia. And I have very often heard the same sentence from survivors, especially from men in this new organization that was only recently founded, that sexual violence against men in Kherson was the fastest and cheapest way for FSB officers to force the confessions they wanted.

20:19 When electric shock devices were attached to the victim's genitals, or, excuse me, when the anus was penetrated with broomsticks or similar objects, people very quickly signed anything that was demanded of them. Und wenn man die Schraub mit der Schraub hat und die Schraub hat, dann wird man schnell verfolgt, was er was an den Fsb-er.

20:51 Was ist auch wichtig, glaube ich, ist, dass für diejenigen, die solche Dinge erleben, sie sind, natürlich, sehr traumatisiert. Obwohl sie sind, Männer, oder Kinder, sie leben in der Sicherheit, in der sogenannten Sicherheit, they are living with their trauma. And I said so-called safety, because the front is constantly moving closer to them.

21:10 As I mentioned earlier, in Kursen, for example, there is artillery fire every day, drones are flying in every single day, and the front is gradually creeping forward. And for those who are already traumatized and have to live with their trauma and somehow cope with it, this is, of course, an additional burden.

21:29 Most women say, we live near the front line, we do live in the de-occupied, the liberated areas. But the war is not over yet. The front line is only 15 kilometers from my home. SEMA, the self-help organization that Irina founded at the time, now helps over 1,000 survivors. It is one of several aid or self-help organizations in Ukraine, but certainly one of the most outspoken.

21:56 Irina has also spoken before various committees, including the United Nations and the European Parliament. And what Irina says is very, very clear. It may come across as a bit shocking, but I think it's completely understandable from her perspective. It makes me believe that they are not human, that like wild animals, they use sexualized violence as a means to break the Ukrainian people.

22:24 Ich habe sehr oft gehört, dass sie das einfach aus Spite machen, aus Envy. Sie constantly fühlen sich das Envy vor den Ukrainien sie occupieren. Ja, die Krieg in Ukraine ist weit über. Es ist in den letzten paar Tagen, es wurde klar, dass die Krieg-Machinerie ist auf ein höchst Höchst. As I mentioned, there have been mass bombardments of Ukrainian cities in recent days, particularly the capital Kyiv, is in the spotlight.

22:57 At the front, Russian troops continue to advance. A ceasefire or even a peace agreement is currently neither visible nor conceivable. Putin is not budging an inch, holding fast to his minimum military demands, namely the surrender without a fight of cities like Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Pokrovsk or also Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

23:17 Das kann und wird nicht passieren, natürlich. Und jetzt ist die Frage, wie Dinge weitergehen? Ukraine braucht Hilfe und erzielt Hilfe, insbesondere in terms von Air Defense Systemen, um ihre Bevölkerung und Infrastruktur zu beschützen. In der langen Zeit, Ukraine will natürlich auch Hilfe mit Reconstruction.

23:36 Aber was Ukraine also braucht ist einfach Hilfe für die Menschen, die in dieser Krieg sind, und in particular, natürlich, die Frauen und Männer, die in der Sexualität von Sexualität. Ich glaube, das ist eine Art emotionaler Verbindung, die weit entfernt werden, was viele Soldaten hatten, oder was die Soldaten hatten, während den bombardieren.

23:57 Sexualized violence, I believe, inflicts even deeper and more severe wounds than what others may have experienced. And that makes it all the more important that everything these people have endured is, on the one hand, investigated and processed, and on the other hand, that they receive support, but above all, that if at all possible, the perpetrators are held accountable, that they are brought to justice, that they are prosecuted, and that they receive the appropriate punishment for the crimes they committed.

24:24 Anyone who downplays this and says, well, that's just part of war, unfortunately, a regrettable aspect of warfare is protecting the perpetrators. And that simply must not happen. It must not happen in Ukraine. It must not happen in Sudan. It must not happen in Israel. It must not happen in Iraq. It must not happen anywhere in the world. Sexualized violence is a crime and must be prosecuted accordingly.

24:48 Vielen Dank für's Zuschauen. Thank you for being with us. Stay alert. Take care of yourselves. All the best. See you soon. In Crisis Mode. The podcast from Conflict Zones with Jan Jessen. Music.