CW: sexual violence
Just two weeks preceding Russia’s 2022 invasion, Vladimir Putin branded Ukraine ‘mine’. (1) He then suggested that Volodymyr Zelensky should allow for Russia’s acquirement of Kyiv through sexual violence rhetoric, translated as either ‘like it or not, it’s your duty, my beauty’, (2) or ‘like it or not, bear with it, my beauty’; (1) both of which provoke connotations of cohesive rape. Although this statement is now two years old, the rhetoric reflects a broader militaristic and imperial attitude that views conquest through the lens of domination and submission. This lens, interlinking territorial aggression and rape culture, has resulted in Russian troops utilising sexual violence itself as a weapon, likening the physical bodies of their enemies to land they must seize and control.
In 2023, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reported that evidence shows Russian authorities have committed various forms of sexual and gender-based violence. This included rape, threats of rape, sexual slavery, and forced nudity (3), in addition to some being forced to watch an act of sexual violence committed against a partner or a child. (4) Pramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, has publicly stated that the prohibition of sexual violence as a tactic of war has been neglected within this conflict, and accused Russia of committing war crimes by using sexual violence, threatened and executed, as part of its military strategy. (4)
Civilian women and girls are largely targeted in areas of Ukraine that have been, or are in the process of being, occupied by Russian forces. These cases are committed by Russian authorities ‘during forced visits to victims’ houses […] in the context of house-to-house searches, which were aimed at locating supporters of the Ukrainian armed forces or finding weapons.’ (5) The assaults are highly territorial, and have been used as punishment for defiance. For example, according to the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, a seventy-five-year-old woman who stayed to protect her property was attacked in her home by a Russian soldier, who then ‘ordered her to undress and when she refused, he ripped off her clothes, cut her abdomen with a small sharp object and raped her several times.’ (6) In another case, a sixteen-year-old pregnant teenager was raped by a Russian soldier in her own home, while her family waited in the next room. (7) This appeals to military control and ownership over individuals in the fight for land. It is not enough to invade civilians' villages, it extends to their homes, their bodies, and the bodies of their families. The way in which supporters of the Ukranian armed forces are specifically targeted highlights this violence as a form of torture (5) used for both punishment and deterrence.
Most documented incidents involving adult male victims exposed sexual violence as a method of torture during their captivity by Russian armed forces and law enforcement authorities. (3) These included threats of rape, rape, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals, electric shocks to the breast, threats of castration, genital mutilation, unwanted touching, forced stripping, and nudity. (3) Considering Russia’s unfavorable attitude towards homosexuality, (8) this violence can be purely attributed to the intent to dominate, alienate, and intimidate these men into submission. Threats of sexual violence and rape towards victims’ families were additionally documented, (3) further exposing how this aggression extends beyond physical punishment and additionally acts as a form of psychological warfare to induce submission and cooperation with Russian forces.
The patterned manner in which these attacks take place exposes this violence as beyond the actions of violence-fuelled opportunism, and instead as a military weapon intended for civilian obedience and territory gain. The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine reads that a survivor stated that ‘it was done just to humiliate us as human beings’, (5) and dehumanise the enemy in pursuit of servitude. Although war-related sexual violence occurs across the globe, there is little question as to why these specific attacks are so overlooked when military leaders publicly use coercive rape as a metaphoric threat. Putin’s publicised ‘gender vulgarism’ (9) proves to Ukrainian civilians, Russian forces, and the rest of the world, that he finds no issue with illustrating Russia as a cohesive rapist and Ukraine as a body dutied to ‘bear with it’, and that this is how he expects - or even hopes - for conflict to transpire.
-Erin
Sources:
Comments