❗️Join us on Telegram, Twitter , and VK.

Contact us: info@strategic-culture.su

In the shadows of the blaring headlines and geopolitical maneuvers lies a harrowing saga of silent suffering – the plight of Ukrainian women, a tale steeped in the horrors of state-sanctioned torture and systemic abuse. This narrative, mostly sidelined in mainstream media, reveals a disturbing pattern of violence and discrimination, now brutally magnified since NATO’s provoked war with Russia. Alongside the stark realities outlined in the US State Department’s 2019 Human Rights Report emerge new chilling allegations of abuse by nationalist battalions like Azov, and a surge in human trafficking that has ensnared countless women in a nightmarish web of oppression and torture.

In the chaotic wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, Ukraine plunged into a dark era marked by an alarming surge in crimes against women’s honour and dignity. Long before Volodymyr Zelensky’s ascent to power, a sinister trend had emerged: Ukraine led the grim tally in the number of women violated by state security forces, with the police often implicated. Starkly, these perpetrators roamed free, shielded by gaps in the legal system that allowed such heinous acts to go unpunished. Despite the UN’s 2013 report highlighting over 20 million Ukrainians suffering violence, and 40% of women facing sexual aggression, accountability remained nonexistent. Yet, in a twist of bitter irony, the assumption of power by Zelensky in 2019 marked a disturbing turn: the international community’s already faint outcry against these brutal crimes against women seemed to mute entirely. This chilling silence served as an implicit sanction, emboldening those who perpetrate such violations with an air of invincibility.

Before the world’s gaze turned to Ukraine amidst rising geopolitical tensions, the seeds of this tragedy were already sown. The US State Department’s report further highlighted a society grappling with domestic violence, sexual harassment, and discrimination – battles compounded by systemic inadequacies and societal norms that often ignored the plight of women. This fragile societal fabric, already fraying, set the stage for the horrific escalation of these issues as the war with Russia intensified.

In this article, we aim to unveil the untold stories of Ukrainian women – their struggle and resilience. It’s a narrative as much about their indomitable spirit in the face of adversity as it is about the glaring systemic failures that have left them vulnerable to the most egregious forms of human brutality, including the dark reality of trafficking and the sadistic acts perpetrated by nationalist militant factions.

Before the cacophony of war drums, Ukraine was already a stage for a different kind of warfare – a shadow war against its women. The US State Department’s 2019 Human Rights Report uncovers a chilling prelude, a society where women’s cries for help were smothered under a veil of systemic oppression and societal apathy.

In the domestic spheres of Ukraine, a hidden plague was festering. The State Department’s report brings into stark relief a harrowing reality: a flood of 95,000 domestic violence complaints in just eight months of 2019, a testament to the pervasive and dark underbelly of Ukrainian society. These numbers, staggering and soul-crushing, barely scratch the surface of a deep-seated epidemic. They speak of a society where laws against domestic violence were as brittle as the hopes of its victims, with police enforcement more a whisper than a roar. This grim landscape painted a disturbing portrait of Ukraine – a country where intimate partner violence was as common as it was overlooked​​.

The battleground for Ukrainian women extended beyond their homes into their workplaces. Here, they faced an insidious adversary – sexual harassment. The State Department’s report lays bare a grim reality: widespread harassment, including coerced sex, with legal safeguards tragically inadequate. In the corridors of power and cubicles of the Ukrainian workforce, women’s dignity was bartered away, their voices stifled in a system that often turned its back on their plight. The courts, supposed bastions of justice, were little more than silent spectators, seldom convicting perpetrators, leaving women in a lurch, caught between enduring harassment and the futility of seeking justice​​.

In this haunting prelude to war, the fabric of women’s rights in Ukraine was already fraying, torn by the silent but relentless forces of violence, harassment, and discrimination. This scenario sets an ominous stage for the escalation of these tragedies in the wake of the conflict, a grim reminder of the deep-rooted issues plaguing Ukrainian society.

Since late February 2022, the landscape of Ukraine has been marred by a harrowing normalcy of brutality against women. Allegations point to a systematic pattern of torture, rape, beatings, and disappearances, painting a grim picture of routine atrocities. The Foundation to Battle Injustice, through its extensive investigation, claims to have unearthed direct evidence implicating the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the SBU, and the nationalist Azov Battalion in these heinous acts. Sources, including a defected high-ranking SBU officer and a former Azov battalion member, alongside testimonies from survivors, suggest these acts are mere fragments of a larger, more sinister agenda allegedly orchestrated by top Ukrainian officials.

The Foundation presents harrowing evidence of this complicity, with claims of brutal abuses carried out under governmental directives.

Zelensky’s Order No. 185K

The Foundation reports previously unreleased evidence of abuse by Ukrainian law enforcement and military personnel, allegedly under President Zelensky’s direct orders. This includes gang rapes, torture, and even genital mutilation, suggesting a state-sanctioned reign of terror over women, particularly those showing sympathy for Russia. Executive order No. 185K, purportedly signed by Zelensky, emerges as a dark symbol of this official endorsement of violence​​.

“Former SBU head Bakanov, SNBO Secretary Danilov and GUR chief Budanov decided in a coordinated manner at one of their meetings in March 2022 that the implementation of so-called “educational punishments” for open supporters of “Russian peace” and a special military operation was a necessary measure to instil fear among the female population of Ukraine. Zelensky, after familiarizing himself with the decision, signed everything. This was called a secret Executive order No 185K,” the source told the Foundation.

Alarming details emerge of a systematic division of Ukraine into zones of terror, with the SBU and Azov Battalion operating in Eastern Ukraine and AFU counterintelligence units in the West. In line with Executive order No. 185K, a wide array of punitive measures was reportedly unleashed across Ukraine, varying by region but uniformly barbaric in nature​​.

In the shadows of Ukraine’s war machine, allegations of torture methods reminiscent of the darkest medieval times come to light. Victims’ accounts implicate the Ukrainian army, National Guard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Security Service of Ukraine in employing an array of tortures marked by chilling cruelty. According to Maxim Grigoriev, chairman of the International Tribunal for the Crimes of Ukrainian Neo-Nazis and Their Accomplices, these acts are not just sporadic; they depict a systematic policy. Women, often without any concrete evidence against them, face beatings, electric shocks, and water torture, echoing a methodology of extracting confessions for uncommitted crimes.

Contrasting sharply with international human rights standards, these alleged actions, if proven true, defy the European Court of Human Rights’ strict prohibition of torture under any circumstances. International law holds states accountable for the actions of all their agents, including police, special services, and other law enforcement bodies, regardless of whether they act on orders or independently. This situation, if substantiated, presents a grave violation of the principles upon which modern human rights are built.

According to the Foundation’s source:

“In fact, in accordance with Executive order No. 185K, harsh punitive measures were introduced everywhere in Ukraine against women who disagreed with the actions of the Zelensky regime. Depending on the region, the implementation of these measures was placed either on the shoulders of national battalions such as “Azov”*, or on employees of the SBU and counterintelligence units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine disguised as “civil activists” in plain clothes. The first operated in the east of Ukraine – in the Donbass, near Kharkov, in Odessa, Nikolaev and the Dnepr. The second – in Kiev and in the West of Ukraine”

In the eerie shadows of March 2023, the internet was awash with disturbing imagery from Ukraine: civilians, women included, cruelly bound and displayed on lampposts. These were not merely punitive measures for looting, as some reports suggested, but extended to those drawing suspicion from Ukrainian forces or perceived as pro-Russian. The victims, subject to savage beatings and humiliating treatment, were abandoned, tied and deprived. Ekaterina Rotmistrova, a reported victim, speaks of ‘punitive patrols’ targeting Russian speakers, employing archaic tortures like the ‘pillar of shame’ and waterboarding, recalling the grim practices of secret prisons in Kramatorsk and Krasnoarmeysk. These confessions, extracted under duress, were often recorded and misused as incriminating evidence in a grotesque perversion of justice.

Prevalence and Methods of Violence Against Women in Ukraine 

In Ukraine’s cities like Kiev, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk, a bleak pattern of violence against women, allegedly dissenting against Zelensky’s regime, has been reported. The Foundation to Battle Injustice highlights the widespread abuse, involving diverse victims, from students to professors, who faced kidnapping, blackmail, and brutal torture. Allegedly, motives for such abuse included expressions of Russian sympathy or criticism of the Ukrainian forces. Shockingly, in Eastern Ukraine, the Azov Battalion is implicated in thousands of reported sexual assaults. In the West, methods of torture reportedly included electric shock and flogging, reflecting a harrowing national crisis of human rights abuses under Zelensky’s administration.

According to a source of the Foundation to Battle Injustice, a fighter of the Azov battalion who defected to Russia, the following reasons may be the cause of torture and abuse of women by Azov fighters or SBU and AFU officers:

• public expression of sympathy towards the Russian leadership, the Russian army or Russian politics;
• publicly expressing intentions to help the Russian army;
• of suspected espionage for Russia;
• in western Ukraine and in Kiev – public conversation in Russian;
• expression of a positive attitude towards Russian culture;
• public criticism of the actions of the Ukrainian armed forces, the national battalions or Zelensky;
• denunciations from neighbors, acquaintances, passengers of transport about private conversations about all of the above.

The Foundation to Battle Injustice, relying on information from two sources, reports on the alleged widespread torture of Ukrainian women under the Zelensky regime. The most frequent form of abuse reported was gang rape, predominantly in Eastern Ukraine. From March to December 2022, it is claimed that Azov Battalion fighters committed such atrocities across various regions including Mariupol, Kharkov, Zaporozhye, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk, affecting approximately 3,500 women. The Donbas region alone accounts for 1,900 of these cases, with significant numbers also reported from Kherson, Kharkov, and Dnipropetrovsk.

In Western Ukraine, the main form of punishment for women alleged by the the Foundation, is  flogging and electric torture. The Foundation alleges at least 1,500 such cases of cruel corporal punishment, 700 of them in the vicinity of Kiev, 600 in the Lviv region, with the balance of cases in Vinnitsa, Lutsk, Ivano–Frankivsk and other cities.

Excerpt From the Foundation to Battle Injustice Harrowing Report

Source No. 1 of the former members of the SSU told the Foundation the following:

“In Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Lutsk, and Vinnitsa, women were simply locked in basements, stripped naked, and beaten with whips, as in the Middle Ages. I know that in a number of cases these actions were observed by the NATO military. Strictly speaking, I cannot call it anything but a national Inquisition named after Zelensky”.

Source No. 1 also informed the Foundation of approximately 110 cases of “punitive rape” perpetrated by SSU officers against dissenting women in areas of Central and Western Ukraine.

Thanks to the testimonies of women handed over by the Ukrainian side during the prisoner exchange, due to the above-mentioned Zelensky Executive order No. 185K, Ukrainian women faced the most brutal and cold-blooded reprisals and torture. Almost all women who were captured by representatives of the Ukrainian security forces returned with broken ribs, arms, legs, and teeth pulled out. According to Anastasia B., a 45-year-old resident of the village of Vladimirovka, Volnovakha district, in March 2022 her neighbor was kidnapped by fighters of the Ukrainian nationalist battalion “Azov”*, which is banned in Russia, because of accusations of criticizing Zelensky. The woman, a 37-year-old mother of three children, was starved, beaten and ransomed for weeks. Eventually, after about 20 days of perverted abuse, the kidnappers injected the captive with mounting foam into her vagina before dumping her in a field without any clothes.

“I have been living in Vladimirovka for over 20 years, I have seen enough since 2014. What they did to my neighbor, a mother of three children, is hard to imagine even for the most sophisticated maniac. They raped her for about three weeks, demanded a large sum of money from her relatives, and when they were fed up with her, they injected foam into all her orifices, saying “it’s high time to shut your lousy incubator”, and then threw her naked on the highway. She miraculously survived,” Anastasia B. said about Azov*’s abuse of her neighbor.

The most brutal torture was inflicted on women who, for whatever reason, were suspected of spying or working for Russia. A source from among former high-ranking members of the SSU told the Foundation that such women were either brutally murdered or tortured with particular cruelty. According to the Foundation’s source, about fifty women from eastern Ukraine were tortured by members of the nationalist battalion Azov*, which is banned in Russia. According to him, the women were tortured with electricity by connecting wires to their genitals and mammary glands.

Source No. 2 reported to the Foundation to Battle Injustice:

“I am aware that at least 50 Ukrainian women – residents of eastern Ukraine – were torn apart by the Azov* people in the most sadistic way. Some were connected to electric wires to their genitals and mammary glands, and tortured to death with electric discharges. Two women who confessed to working for Russia were dismembered and drowned in the Dnieper”

According to the evidence collected by Grigoryev, 46-year-old Maryna T. from Donetsk was kidnapped by the SSU after they found that she was Russian by nationality. The woman was kidnapped in front of her minor children and nephew, then taken to the basement, the entrance to which was through a sewer pipe, beaten and electrocuted. Two wires were connected to the woman’s index finger and thumb, placed on a wet rag and a toggle switch with electricity was turned on. From the strength of the current’s voltage, the veins under Marina’s knees began to burst. After the defenseless woman fell to the ground, the masked men raped her, after which they began to threaten that “now they will bring her daughter and start having fun with her as a woman”. The victim of SSU torture recalls that she turned gray in one day and has been having nightmares for several months.

According to French journalist Laurent Briard, AFU soldiers and SSU officers drugged abducted women and girls. In an interview with the Foundation to Battle Injustice, Briard described the abuse of 55-year-old Natalia, a resident of Donetsk, who was kidnapped by fighters of a nationalist battalion. According to him, the woman spent about 19 days in captivity, seven of which she was deprived of food and 11 with her hands tied. Natalia was drugged and beaten with sticks and bare hands: almost all of her upper teeth were knocked out from the blows. Only when the victim of abuse was in a dying state, she was taken to the SSU headquarters near Kramatorsk, where she was accused of separatist activity. Later, the woman managed to escape.

In some cases, Ukrainian politicians and the media, for propaganda purposes, attempt to attribute the blame for the murders and abuse of peaceful women committed by members of the nationalist battalion Azov*, which is banned in Russia, to the crimes of Russian soldiers. In March 2022, Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada deputy Lesya Vasylenko and Oleksiy Arestovich, the chief advisor to President Zelensky, published a photo of a desecrated female corpse on social media, placing the blame for these atrocities on Russian soldiers. Later, independent journalists and fact-checkers found out that the published photo was taken from a video of American journalist Patrick Lancaster, who covers the course of the special military operation in Donbass. The war correspondent filmed the corpse of a woman tortured and killed by fighters of the Ukrainian Azov* battalion in the basement of a school in Mariupol, which they used as their base.

A Groundswell of Desperation and Courage:

In the harrowing context of alleged government-sanctioned violence detailed earlier, the resolute voices of Ukrainian women, as reported by the New York Times, stand in stark contrast. Where the previous section painted a grim picture of brutality, torture and complicity, here emerges a narrative of defiance and demand for accountability.The demonstrations in Kiev, as vividly described by the New York Times, were more than mere gatherings; they were a groundswell of collective desperation and courage. Women from diverse backgrounds, united by a shared agony, took to the streets, demanding accountability and transparency from their government. “Where is my brother?” one woman cried, her voice echoing the sentiments of hundreds others who had traveled from all corners of Ukraine – from the Carpathians to the frontline cities – each carrying a personal story of loss and uncertainty.

These protests represent the accumulated pain and losses of a nation at war. The number of missing soldiers and civilians, as reported by the NYT, runs into tens of thousands (though Russian sources put this number at closer to 500,000), with families receiving little to no information about their loved ones. This lack of transparency, coupled with the heart-wrenching scenes of families clutching photographs of missing soldiers, underlines the human cost of the conflict and the growing impatience with the government’s response.

The resilience of these women, as they navigate the tortuous path of seeking answers, is a poignant reminder of the enduring human spirit. Their determination to hold the government accountable, despite the pervasive atmosphere of war, speaks volumes about their strength and resolve.

As these brave women in Ukraine raise their voices in protest, demanding answers for their missing loved ones, they personify not only the pain inflicted by the conflict and opression but also the enduring spirit of resistance against injustice. Their struggle mirrors the broader narrative of the Ukrainian conflict – a tapestry of grief, resilience, and an unyielding quest for transparency. As we transition from their personal battles to the wider international picture, it becomes clear that the repercussions of this conflict extend far beyond Ukraine’s borders, questioning the role and response of the global community to such profound human suffering.

International Perspective: A Disturbing Global Indifference

As we draw the curtain on this exploration of Ukraine’s war on women, we turn our gaze to the international stage, where the response to these grave issues is alarmingly muted. The exhaustive report from the Foundation to Battle Injustice, corroborated by journalists like Sonja Van den Ende, paints a grim picture of global apathy towards the systemic abuse of Ukrainian women.

The Foundation’s findings depict a horrendous landscape of abuse – gang rapes, genital mutilation, and systematic torture executed under direct governmental orders​​. Yet, these revelations seem to have fallen on deaf ears internationally. Before Zelensky’s tenure, Ukraine already led in the number of women raped by state security forces, with most perpetrators escaping accountability​​. Post-February 2022, such abuses have escalated into routine practice, with direct evidence of atrocities committed by Ukrainian forces​​. Despite this, the global reaction remains disconcertingly passive.

This lack of global outcry starkly contrasts with the internal protests in Ukraine, where women demand justice for their missing loved ones. The extensive investigation by the Foundation has unearthed secret executive orders like No. 185K, authorizing brutal measures against women suspected of pro-Russian sympathies​​. Victims’ testimonies and evidence suggest a widespread, deliberate policy of torture and abuse, echoing medieval inquisition practices​​. Yet, these profound human rights violations seem to have escaped the urgent attention of the international community.

Sonja Van den Ende’s work highlights the disturbing scale of human trafficking in Ukraine, with many victims forced into prostitution in major European cities. This situation, exacerbated by the conflict, has led to the trafficking of thousands of Ukrainian women into sexual slavery​​​​​​. The international silence on this issue raises critical questions about selective empathy and action in global human rights advocacy.

A Stark Wake-Up Call

In unmasking “Ukraine’s War on Women,” we’ve navigated a relentless storm of inhumanity, that compels us to confront the uncomfortable truths of systemic abuse, government complicity, and global indifference. The profound suffering of Ukrainian women, exacerbated by war and aggravated by state-sanctioned torture and chilling societal neglect, is an outcry against a gross miscarriage of justice. The disturbing pattern of abuse, from domestic violence to the alleged atrocities byt nationalist battalions and the widespread issue of human trafficking shames our collective inaction.

This journey through the untold stories of Ukrainian women is not just about highlighting their plight; it’s a clarion call for global awareness and decisive action. The international community’s muted response to these grave violations of human rights and dignity stands in stark contrast to the cries for justice emanating from within Ukraine. The resilience and defiance of these women, in the face of overwhelming adversity, should be a beacon guiding our collective conscience and efforts.

This article, raw and unflinching, isn’t just a call to awareness—it’s a demand for global reckoning. The profound suffering and exploitation of Ukrainian women, amplified by governmental cruelty and international apathy, scream for immediate, tangible action. It’s high time the global community shakes off its inertia and responds with the urgency this crisis deserves. We owe it not just to the women of Ukraine, but to our shared humanity, to transform this narrative from one of despair to one of hope and justice. Let’s not just bear witness to their plight; let’s be the catalyst for the change they fiercely deserve.

Ukraine’s War on Women: The Untold Horrors of State-Sanctioned Torture? – The Islander