A RUSSIAN soldier has been accused of holding a younger Ukrainian lady in sexual slavery for over a 12 months.
Vyacheslav Dubenko allegedly raped his sufferer, 21, a number of instances earlier than abducting her to Russia the place he saved her locked in his boarded up flat.
“The balcony had metallic bars,” stated Anna Ponomarenko, a senior conflict crime investigator with the Kharkiv police.
“Every thing was boarded up. The doorways had been locked with each keys and padlocks … he took away her telephone. He left her meals, that’s it. It was intercourse slavery.”
When the occupation of the Kharkiv area started in March 2022, Russian troopers reportedly seized the girl’s village and moved into the constructing subsequent to her house.
She lived together with her disabled mom and two younger brothers.
Dubenko is known to have made repeated advances towards her, till at some point, he arrived armed and accompanied by two fellow troopers.
“Would you like your loved ones to be useless?” he allegedly threatened her.
The soldier then pressured his sufferer contained in the neighbouring constructing and raped her, based on investigators, who say this occurred on a number of events.
When her mom is claimed to have appealed to the Russian commander, he dismissed the soldier’s actions, saying: “The younger will probably be younger.”
Whereas on go away in June that 12 months, Dubenko and two different troopers, known as “Ibrahim” and “Maga”, allegedly trafficked the girl to Belgorod, in Russia, The Times reported.
For over a 12 months, he raped her and saved her locked, investigators say.
He would solely permit her out at night time to sit down with him on a bench beneath the flat, it’s claimed.
The lady says the soldier additionally threatened to kill her household if she refused intercourse or tried to flee.
Not realizing that her house had already been liberated by Ukraine, the sufferer believed his alleged lies.
In January 2023, she tried to take her personal life.
When Dubenko took her to the hospital, he advised docs to not consider her claims about being kidnapped, telling them that she is a “disturbed lady from Ukraine,” police stated.
As soon as her situation improved, they despatched her again “house” – to her alleged rapist’s flat.
9 months later, she managed to flee, and with the assistance of a community of volunteers and her older brother, who was serving within the Ukrainian army, she managed to return to Ukraine.
A whole bunch of Ukrainian girls and ladies have reported sexual violence by Russian troopers through the conflict.
The precise variety of victims, advocates say, is probably far larger.
Final 12 months, the United Nations despatched a file of sexual torture allegations to Russia involving the circumstances of 10 Ukrainians abused in occupied areas, together with Kherson, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia.
Particular Rapporteur on Torture, Alice Jill Edwards, stated on the time: “These separate allegations, capturing the experiences of 4 girls and 6 males, are really grisly.
“They characterize nonetheless solely a small snapshot of a wider, well-documented sample of dangers of torture to civilians in occupied areas.”
The knowledgeable added: “These had been all extremely sexualised assaults which included rapes, threats of rape, and different wicked conduct.
“It’s changing into clearer that the Russian Federation’s deliberate and systematic coverage of torture in Ukraine includes sexualised torture and different sexualised cruelty, together with towards the civilian inhabitants.”
