The shocking testimony of a woman raped by a Russian soldier in Kharkov: “All the time he pointed a gun at me”

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Sunday that “summary executions” and” other serious abuses "that could amount to war crimes.

Between 27 February and 14 March, the NGO documented dozens of cases in which Russian forces committed what would constitute war crimes against civilians in occupied areas in the Kharkiv, Chernigov and Kiev regions. According to a statement from the organization, such cases include rape, two summary executions, of six men on one occasion and one on another, and other instances of violence and threats against civilians.

On March 13, a Russian soldier repeatedly beat and raped Olha (HRW did not reveal her real name to preserve her identity), a 31-year-old woman in Malaya Rohan, a town in the Kharkiv region that Russian forces controlled at the time.

Russian soldiers entered the village on February 25, Olha said. On that day, some 40 villagers, mostly women and girls, took refuge in the basement of a local school. She was there with her 5-year-old daughter, her mother, her 13-year-old sister and her 24-year-old brother.

Around midnight on March 13, a Russian soldier forcibly entered the school. Olha recounted: “He broke the glass windows at the entrance of the school and knocked on the door.” A guard opened.

The soldier, who was carrying an assault rifle and a pistol, went to the basement and ordered everyone present to line up. The woman was in line holding her daughter, who was asleep. He told her to give her the girl, but she refused. He told his brother to come forward and ordered the rest of the group to kneel or, he said, he would shoot everyone in the basement.

The soldier ordered his brother to follow him to help find food. They left and returned an hour or two later. The soldier sat on the ground.

“People started asking if they could go to the bathroom and he left them, in groups of two and three,” Olha said. After that, people began to settle down for the night. The soldier approached his family and told him to follow him.

The soldier took her to a classroom on the second floor, where he pointed a gun at her and told her to undress. She said: “He told me to give him oral sex. The whole time he held the gun close to my temple or put it in my face. He shot twice at the ceiling and said it was to give me more 'motivation'.” He raped her and then told her to sit on a chair.

Olha was still naked after the brutal attack and was very cold in the school without heating. He asked if he could get dressed, but the soldier told him that he could only wear his blouse, not his pants or underwear. “While I was getting dressed, the soldier told me that he was Russian, that his name was [name omitted] and that he was 20 years old. He said it reminded him of a girl he went to school with,” he said.

The uniformed man then asked him to go to the basement to get his things, so he could stay in the classroom with him. She turned him down. “I knew my daughter would cry if she saw me,” she said.

The soldier took a knife and told him to do it as he said if he wanted to see his little girl again. Then he raped her again, put a knife to her throat and cut the skin on her neck. He also cut his cheek with the knife and part of his hair. He hit her in the face with a book and slapped her repeatedly.

At approximately 7 a.m. on March 14, the soldier told him to find him a pack of cigarettes. They went down together. He asked the guard to give the soldier some cigarettes. After the soldier got the cigarettes he left.

On that day, she and her family walked to Kharkiv, where volunteers provided her with basic medical assistance. They moved to a bomb shelter.

“I'm lucky to be alive,” she said. She added that Malaya Rohan's council authorities were in contact with her and her mother; and that they were preparing a criminal complaint, which they plan to file with the Ukrainian prosecutor's office.

Human Rights Watch received three further allegations of sexual violence by Russian soldiers in other villages in the Chernihiv region and in Mariupol, in the south, but has not been able to verify them independently.

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