Ukrainian great-grandmother, 75, describes horrifying rape ordeal at the hands of a Russian soldier in his 60s who maimed and strangled her until dawn after bursting into her home
- Lyudmila, 75, detailed how Russian soldier raped her and beat her in her home
- The great-grandmother detailed how solider punched her and beat her with rifle
- She said he maimed her with and strangled her before raping her on sofa
- Russian soldiers have used rape as a weapon of war since the invasion began
A Ukrainian great-grandmother has described how a Russian soldier raped and beat her until dawn after he burst into her home.
Lyudmila, 75, detailed how the Russian soldier punched her so hard that he broke her nose and knocked out two of her teeth before he beat her with his rifle.
The great-grandmother said the soldier, who was in his 60s, threw her onto the sofa and strangled her before he maimed her after he broke into her home in the village Myroliubivka, near Kherson.
Lyudmila, her voice cracking with emotion, said the soldier then ripped off her clothes and raped her.
She still has the scars on her stomach from where the rapist cut her stomach. ‘The deep ones still haven’t healed,’ Lyudmila told Radio 4’s Today programme.
Lyudmila’s horrific ordeal – and the testimonies of hundreds of other Ukrainian women – shows how Russian soldiers have used rape as a weapon of war in the eight months since the barbaric invasion began.
Lyudmila, 75, detailed how the Russian soldier punched her so hard that he broke her nose and knocked out two of her teeth before he beat her with his rifle. Pictured: File image of a woman walking past a damaged building in Nova Kakhovka, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on Sunday
The 75-year-old, detailing the hours of abuse at the hands of the Russian soldier, said: ‘One night, I heard a very loud knock at my window. I saw a soldier there.
‘When I opened the door, he immediately punched me in the face, knocked out two of my teeth and broke my nose. I was covered with blood.’
Lyudmila, who later fled her home with her family, continued: ‘He started beating me in the chest with his rifle butt. He pulled my hair, threw me onto the sofa and began to strangle me.
‘Then he began to undress me and after, he raped me.’
The great-grandmother added: ‘He cut my stomach. Until now, I have scars on my stomach. The deep ones still haven’t healed.’
The Russian soldier beat Lyudmila for hours and sprayed the room with bullets. He left at dawn.’
Recalling what she was thinking as she endured the hours of abuse, Lyudmila said: ‘I said goodbye to my children, my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren.
‘I never thought I would stay alive. Putin and the Russians will never be forgiven. There will be no forgiveness.’
Since Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine began, Russian soldiers have raped scores of women and girls – leading some to consider committing suicide.
A horrifying and damning UN report released earlier this month detailed how Russian soldiers gang-raped a 22-year-old Ukrainian mother, sexually abused her husband and made the couple have sex in front of them before raping their four-year-old daughter.
The heart-wrenching report revealed how Russian troops, while occupying a village in the Chernihiv region, also raped an 83-year-old woman in her house in front of her physically disabled husband.
In many cases, the Russian soldiers would shoot dead the women’s husbands – or threaten to do so – as soon as they tried to defend their wives and stop them from being raped.
Rape has historically been used as a weapon of war – in Bosnia in 1992, Rwanda in 1994 and Darfur in 2003 to name but a few instances.
Since Putin’s barbaric invasion of Ukraine began, Russian soldiers have raped scores of women and girls – leading some to consider committing suicide (File image of a woman arranging flowers outside a house where a couple were killed in Kyiv)
Russian soldiers have also been known to use rape as a weapon of war in the past. The Soviet Red Army solders raped an estimated two million German women after the fall of Hitler’s Third Reich at the end of the Second World War.
The true scale of wartime rape – and now in Ukraine – will continue to remain unknown as many women remain silent about their experiences for fear of being stigmatised.
Systematic mass rape campaigns use forced impregnation as a tool to ethnically cleanse a nation and psychologically traumatize generations of people.
The children born as a result of this wartime rape are often stigmatised themselves as they become a ‘living reminder of the conflict’, academics say.
Russia invaded Ukraine back in February as Putin ordered what was supposed to be a days-long ‘special military operation’ to topple the government.
But he now finds himself bogged down in an eight-month long war that looks set to continue for months longer at least, and suffering huge losses.
Ukrainian resistance has proved fiercer than almost all observers expected, and has been spurred on by atrocities that Russia troops have committed in occupied areas.
Back in April, after Putin’s men withdrew from areas around the capital Kyiv, mass graves containing the bodies of hundreds of civilians were uncovered.
Survivors of the occupation told how Russian soldiers hunted down anyone suspected of working with the government or military to interrogate and torture – some were ultimately killed.
Others told how soldiers came to their homes, beat or raped them, stole, and then fled as Ukraine’s forces advanced.
Kyiv argues that Moscow is fighting a genocidal war aimed at wiping out their national identity by murdering innocents, deporting people into Russia, and systemic rapes.
Putin denies that his armed forces are deliberately targeting civilians.
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