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The invasion of Vladimir Putin's troops into Ukraine not only leaves thousands dead, injured, displaced and destroyed. It also leaves psychological effects on the thousands who try to go on with their lives amid hunger, fear, desolation and, even, after being raped.
The Ukrainian portal HB interviewed psychotherapist Oleksandra Kvitko, who works with victims of rape committed by the Russian army in the occupied territories. He spoke of the most difficult cases he has and affirmed that such atrocities had not existed in the modern world for a long time.
“The youngest child I work with is 10 years old,” said the professional. At the same time, she indicated that “the atrocities of war do not exclude anyone, I have several cases of rape of men. Only one allowed me to talk about his experience. This man is disabled, is 45 years old, could not go to the army or to the defense and was forced to stay at home because of his state of health when he was treated. The rape of men in our society is a taboo, traditionally it is required that they have courage, courage, strength. Men rarely dare to talk about such an injury, much less than women. It's not easy for women to talk about this, and especially for men.”
He continued: “The first victims of sexual violence began to come to me after the liberation of the Kiev region. It's been three or four days, and the calls have started, and they're not over yet. After Kyiv, the Kherson region joined, the villages under occupation, the girls who were taken from there. These people are very afraid, they don't trust anyone. I sent a photo of my passport and a psychologist's certificate to a girl to show her that I have the competence to communicate with her. We communicate in such a way that her video is off and my video is constantly working, she needs to see me because trust in these girls is so destroyed.”
He then made a difference between what he called domestic rape and those that occur in a context of war. “Domestic rape is aimed at the rapist's sexual pleasure. Obtaining such pleasure is not natural, it is called perversion (...). Now we are also faced with perversion, but with a great component of sadism, and its nature is different. In my opinion, it's not about pleasure, but about the rapist's power over the victim. They gain power and control, often without even physical sexual pleasure, only moral. Several girls told me that in their case the rape did not end in ejaculation,” said the specialist.
“Most rapists, according to the girls, wore masks or balaclavas, and it was much more difficult than if they had their faces uncovered. Because after that all men become rapists of that victim. By voices, these are boys 20, 25, 27 years old, and I thought that was the age of Putin's regime. It seems that violence has been a mission for these guys all their lives. They do not understand who is the object of violence for them, it can be anyone, of any age and gender. And this also distinguishes Russian rapists from domestic rapists, who carefully select the victim according to certain criteria,” he added.
Asked about what happens to the psyche of a person who has been sexually abused, especially during the war, the psychotherapist explained: “Most of the time the victim blames himself, and this accusation intensifies during the war. We have an example, both the mother and the girl allowed me to tell about it, when the girl left the house to pick up something in the garden for her mother, her mother asked her not to go out. The girl was seen by Russian soldiers. According to her, they started playing her in different places and then she doesn't remember anything. Her mother found her unconscious in the garden. All he says to me now is: 'I'm guilty, I shouldn't have gone, my mother told me not to go, I'm guilty. '”
The professional also said that she is working with four teenagers who became pregnant and detailed the case of one that allowed her to speak: “She is a 14-year-old girl who was raped by five Russian soldiers and is now pregnant. The doctors warned the girl's mother and the girl herself that, if she had an abortion now, there was a good chance that she would not be able to have any more children. The girl's family is also very religious, so they decided to go ahead with the pregnancy. It is always the choice of the person who seeks help, so now we are working on how he will treat the child who will give birth. But I admit that it is difficult for me to even trust something, because in psychological practice these wild cases are almost not described.”
Kvitko warned that they will have to be prepared for after the release of Kherson, Mariupol and Kharkiv: “We will have to deal with many of these cases. Older women can at least decide for themselves to terminate a pregnancy. It is more difficult with teenage girls, because it is the responsibility of parents until they are 14 years old, and it is a very difficult dilemma.”
Finally, regarding the treatment to be given to a person who has been raped and, even more so, in the context of war, he said that “the main thing is to be close. A person who has been raped finds it difficult to establish contact. We must constantly ask: Can I hold you? Can I hold your hand? The boundaries of the personality of these people, not only moral but also physical, are destroyed. Now they feel like a body and like flesh, they need to regain the sense of personality, that they are important, that they control themselves, their body, their abilities”.
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