Sveriges Radios sajt blockerad i Ryssland

  Den 11 augusti 2022 började ryska internetleverantörer blockera Sveriges Radios webbsida på befallning av Roskomnadzor och ryske riksåklagaren. Beslutet hade fattats tidigare men teknisk implementering startade först häromdagen.

PAUL DI’ANNO & Warhorse “Stop the War (SLAVA UKRAINE)”

Welcome to the Circus

Welcome to the circus

Welcome to the shit show
Just another freak show
Hang your hat and hate at the door
It’s a game of torture
Souls are made to order
Everything you wanted and more
 
You’ve gotta kill somebody to thrill somebody
Everybody’s gotta reason to bleed
You’ve gotta fuck somebody to know somebody
That motherfucker ain’t me
 
Am I the only one
That doesn’t buy into the lies?
Am I the only one
That doesn’t wear a disguise?
’Cause if I can’t break it
And I can’t change it
Then tell me, how will I know? (Tell me, how will I?)
Am I the only one
That isn’t just here for the show?
Welcome to the circus
 
Grab your favorite stones
They came for broken bones
That’s what happens when you sign on the line
There’s no need for excuses
Everybody loses
Only way you’ll ever win is to die
 
You’ve gotta burn somebody to learn somebody
Everybody’s got a Jekyll and Hyde
You gotta curse somebody to hurt somebody
Everybody needs a reason to die
 
Am I the only one
That doesn’t buy into the lies?
Am I the only one
That doesn’t wear a disguise?
’Cause if I can’t break it
And I can’t change it
Then tell me, how will I know? (Tell me, how will I?)
Am I the only one
That isn’t just here for the show?
Welcome to the circus
 
You gotta hide your face
(Sell them what they bought ’cha)
(Teach them what they taught ’cha)
You gotta hide your veins
(This is how they gut ’cha)
(Right before they cut ya)
You gotta hide your pain
(Ugly how they rule you)
(That’s just how they screw you)
You gotta hide your rage
(Everyone has earned this)
(Welcome to the circus)
 
Tickey, tickey, tasket
Time to burn the casket
Time to burn this motherfucker down
 
Am I the only one
That doesn’t buy into the lies?
Am I the only one
That doesn’t wear a disguise? (Doesn’t wear a disguise)
’Cause if I can’t break it
And I can’t change it
Then tell me, how will I know? (Tell me, how will I?)
Am I the only one
That isn’t just here for the show? (Not just here for the…)
 
Am I
Tell me, how will I know? (Tell me, how will I?)
Am I the only one
That isn’t just here for the show?
Welcome to the circus

Pääsy Ylen ja Yle Novostin verkkosivustoille estettiin Venäjällä – vastaava päätoimittaja: "Ei tullut yllätyksenä"

https://yle.fi/uutiset/3-12472030
 
2. kesäkuuuta 2022
 
Ylen suomen-, venäjän-, ruotsin- ja englanninkielisten uutisten sivustoille ei enää pääse Venäjällä.
 
Venäjän liittovaltion viestinnän valvontapalvelu Roskomnadzor on estänyt Ylen sivustot Venäjällä. Yle.fi-sivusto ilmestyi Roskomnadzorin kiellettyjen sivustojen rekisteriin (siirryt toiseen palveluun) torstaina. Estopäätös on tehty valtakunnansyyttäjän virastossa 27. toukokuuta.
 
Roskomsvoboda (siirryt toiseen palveluun)-kansalaisjärjestön mukaan eston syynä on Yle Novostin venäjäksi kääntämä juttu joukkoraiskauksista Ukrainassa. Suomen kielellä juttu on luettavissa tästä.
 
Ylen, Yle Newsin ja Yle Novostin sivustoja ei tällä hetkellä voi avata Venäjällä. Myös pääsy Svenska Ylen sivustolle estettiin myöhemmin iltapäivällä. VPN-yhteyden kautta sivut ovat kuitenkin luettavissa.
 
– Tämä päätös ei tullut meille millään lailla yllätyksenä, sitä on odotettu koko kevään, kun länsimaisia medioita ja viimeksi myös Helsingin Sanomat blokattiin siellä. Onhan tämä tietenkin valitettavaa, että jälleen kerran vähennetään venäjänkielisen yleisön mahdollisuutta saada Venäjällä oikeaa tietoa muun muassa Ukrainan sodasta, – kommentoi Ylen uutis- ja ajankohtaistoiminnan vastaava päätoimittaja Jouko Jokinen.
 
– Venäjällä yritetään minimoida normaalia uutisointia ja oikean tiedon välittämistä, joten siinä mielessä tämä on johdonmukaista jatkoa heidän toiminnalleen.
 
Roskomnadzorin kiellettyjen sivustojen rekisterissä ovat myös Helsingin Sanomat, Ilta-Sanomat ja tanskalainen sanomalehti Politiken. Syynä estoon ovat venäjänkieliset artikkelit, joissa uutisoidaan Venäjän toimista Ukrainassa.
 
Venäläiset viranomaiset ovat rajoittaneet pääsyä kymmeniin sekä venäläisiin että ulkomaisiin tiedotusvälineisiin. Joukossa on muun muassa brittiläinen yleisradioyhtiö BBC, virolainen sanomalehti Postimees, saksalainen Deutsche Welle, venäläiset Dožd tv-kanava ja Eho Moskvy radioasema.

Svenska Yle svartlistas i Ryssland – också andra Ylesidor blockeras

https://svenska.yle.fi/a/7-10017202

 
2 juni 2022
 
Om ryssarna skriver in svenska.yle.fi i sökmotorn på internet just nu kommer de ingen vart. En tillsynsmyndighet i Ryssland har nämligen blockerat de flesta av Yles sajter.
 
Ur Yles nyhetsutbud har också Yle Uutisets webbsida yle.fi blockerats, likaså Yle News och Yle Novosti.
 
De här av Yles avdelningar lades till först på listan över förbjudna Ylesidor. Listan kompletterades med Svenska Yle på torsdagseftermiddagen.
 
Listan över förbjudna nätsidor har sammanställts av Roskomnadzor, ryska myndigheten för tillsyn och övervakning av kommunikation, informationsteknologi och massmedier. Beslutet om att lägga till Yle på listan fattades den 27 maj.
 
Orsaken till att de här sidorna blockerats är rapporteringen om kriget i Ukraina. Roskomnadzor är den ryska myndighet som beslutar om censur av webbplatser på internet.
 
Svenska Yles direktör: "Tråkigt, men väntat"
 
Yles nyhetssidor nås fortfarande med hjälp av VPN-anslutning i Ryssland, men utan VPN går Svenska Yle, Yle Uutiset, Yle News och Yle Novosti inte att öppna.
 
För Svenska Yles direktör Johanna Törn-Mangs kommer beslutet inte som någon överraskning.
 
– Beslutet är tråkigt, men väntat. Nu gör man allt i Ryssland för att förhindra att den ryska befolkningen får ta del av oberoende information om Rysslands krig mot Ukraina, säger Törn-Mangs.
 
Inte heller Yle Uutisets ansvariga utgivare Jouko Jokinen är överraskad.
 
– Vi har väntat på det här beslutet under hela våren då flera västerländska medier, senast Helsingin Sanomat, blockerades i Ryssland. Det är naturligtvis beklagligt, säger Jokinen i samband med att beslutet publicerades på Yle.fi.
 
Finska medier som finns med på listan sedan tidigare är Helsingin Sanomat och Ilta-Sanomat. Internationella medier som blockerats i Ryssland är bland annat det brittiska rundradiobolaget BBC och den tyska Deutsche Welle.

Rusland blokerer adgang til Politiken efter artikler på russisk

https://nyheder.tv2.dk/2022-05-26-rusland-blokerer-adgang-til-politiken-efter-artikler-pa-russisk
 
26. maj 2022
 
Politiken fortsætter med at udgive artikler om krig i Ukraine på russisk, selv om Rusland blokerer adgangen.
 
Adgangen til Politiken er blevet blokeret i Rusland. Det samme er adgangen til det finske medie Helsingin Sanomat.
 
Det skriver Politiken med henvisning til det finske medie Yle Uutiset. Mediet har fundet oplysningen på det russiske medietilsyn Roskomnadzors hjemmeside.
 
Ifølge Politiken skyldes blokeringen, at begge medier udgiver artikler om krigen i Ukraine på russisk.
 
- Vi har valgt at oversætte artikler til russisk for at være med til at sikre, at der er en åben og kritisk dialog i en tid med krig i Europa
 
- Det fortsætter vi naturligvis med, selv om vores hjemmeside er blevet blokeret, siger chefredaktør Christian Jensen til sin avis.
 
Politikens hjemmeside, politiken.dk, kan stadig tilgås fra Rusland via en vpn-forbindelse. Det er kort sagt en teknik, som kan bruges til at oprette en sikker og beskyttet netværksforbindelse.
 
Også andre medier er blokeret
 
Tidligere er også medier som britiske BBC og tyske Deutsche Welle blevet blokeret i Rusland.
 
Til Politiken siger Christian Jensen, at han ikke er overrasket over blokeringen.
 
- Det viser, hvor alvorlig en situation vi er i, når et land ikke mener, at dets egen befolkning kan tåle at høre fri og uafhængig journalistik fra andre landes medier, siger han.
 
Tidligere torsdag truede Rusland med at udvise amerikanske journalister eller nyhedsmedier.
 
Truslen fulgte, efter videotjenesten Youtube havde blokeret for briefinger fra det russiske udenrigsministerium.
 
Ny lov tillader blokeringen
 
Det er få dage siden, at Rusland vedtog en ny lov. Den gør det muligt for anklagere at lukke for udenlandske medier i Rusland. Det kan de gøre, hvis et vestligt land har været "uvenligt" over for et russisk medie.
 
I marts underskrev præsident Vladimir Putin en anden lov, som har haft stor betydning for landets medier.
 
Den betyder, at man kan få op til 15 års fængsel for bevidst at sprede "falske" nyheder om Ruslands militære handlinger.
 
Det fik straks nogle vestlige medier til at hive deres journalister hjem. En lang række vestlige medier er dog blevet i landet og rapporterer videre.
 
Rusland har desuden forbudt, at man omtaler invasionen af Ukraine som en krig, et angreb eller en invasion.

Krieg in der Ukraine und Nato-Staaten: Durch Absprachen Krieg mit Rußland verhindern

https://www.zeit.de/news/2022-05/25/nato-staaten-durch-absprachen-krieg-mit-russland-verhindern
 
25. Mai 2022
 
Unter den Nato-Staaten gibt es nach Informationen der Deutschen Presse-Agentur informelle Absprachen zum Verzicht auf die Lieferung bestimmter Waffensysteme an die Ukraine.
 
Wie der dpa am Mittwoch in Bündniskreisen in Brüssel bestätigt wurde, soll dadurch das Risiko einer direkten militärischen Konfrontation zwischen Nato-Staaten und Rußland möglichst gering gehalten werden. Befürchtet wird so zum Beispiel, daß Rußland die Lieferung westlicher Kampfpanzer und Kampfflugzeuge offiziell als Kriegseintritt werten könnte und dann militärische Vergeltungsmaßnahmen ergreift. Waffensysteme dieser Art wurden bislang nicht in die Ukraine geliefert.
 
Nach Angaben aus der SPD-Bundestagsfraktion ist diese informelle Verabredung in Berlin bekannt. «Darüber wurde der Verteidigungsausschuß Mitte Mai vollumfänglich informiert», sagte der verteidigungspolitische Sprecher der SPD-Fraktion, Wolfgang Hellmich, der Deutschen Presse-Agentur.
 
In Deutschland hatten zuletzt Aussagen der Parlamentarischen Staatssekretärin im Verteidigungsministerium, Siemtje Möller (SPD), für Diskussionen gesorgt. Sie sagte am Sonntag in der ZDF-Sendung «Berlin direkt» zu Waffenlieferungen, es sei innerhalb der Nato festgehalten, «daß keine Schützen- oder Kampfpanzer westlichen Modells geliefert werden».
 
Keine offizielle Äußerung der Nato
 
Unionsfraktionsvize Johann Wadephul (CDU) kritisierte daraufhin am Mittwoch, daß die Bundesregierung eine solche Absprache bei den Beratungen im Bundestag zur Lieferung schwerer Waffen nicht erwähnt habe. «Entweder liegt das an einer skandalösen Unfähigkeit, die gepaart ist mit Schlamperei und Unwissenheit. Oder aber, und das wäre ein veritabler Skandal, der Deutsche Bundestag und die Öffentlichkeit werden mit immer neuen Pseudobegründungen hinter die Fichte geführt, um eine systematische Verzögerungsstrategie zu tarnen», sagte er dem Portal «Focus Online».
 
Ein Nato-Sprecher äußerte sich am Mittwoch nur allgemein zum Thema. Er verwies darauf, daß alle Lieferentscheidungen am Ende Sache der einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten seien. Diese halten sich nach Angaben von Diplomaten bislang an informelle Absprachen - auch weil sie sonst am Ende fürchten müßten, im Fall eines russischen Angriffs nicht die volle Unterstützung der Bündnispartner zu bekommen. Aus diesem Grund soll zum Beispiel Polen vor mehr als zwei Monaten auf die Lieferung von MiG-29-Kampfjets sowjetischer Bauart an die Ukraine verzichtet haben.
 
Der Oberbefehlshaber der US-Streitkräfte in Europa, Tod D. Wolters, hatte im März zu dem Thema erklärt, die Weitergabe von MiG-29 könne nach Einschätzung von Geheimdiensten von Moskau mißverstanden werden und in einer Eskalation Rußlands mit der Nato resultieren. Dies sei ein Hochrisiko-Szenario, sagte der Vier-Sterne-General.
 
Nato nimmt Deutschland in Schutz
 
Indirekt bestätigt wurden Absprachen in der Vergangenheit unter anderem von Frankreichs Präsident Emmanuel Macron. Dieser sagte im März nach einem Sondergipfel der Staats- und Regierungschefs der Nato-Staaten zum Thema Waffenlieferungen: «Es gibt eine Grenze, die darin besteht, nicht Kriegspartei zu werden.» Diese Grenze werde von allen Alliierten geteilt und deswegen liefere bislang niemand Waffen wie Flugzeuge.
 
Der CDU-Politiker Wadephul warf der Bundesregierung am Mittwoch dennoch vor, gegen den Bundestagsbeschluß zur Lieferung von schweren Waffen an die Ukraine zu verstoßen. «Das findet nicht statt. Damit verstößt die Bundesregierung gegen einen bindenden Beschluß des Parlaments», kritisierte er. «Wenn es so weitergeht, gibt es dazu später einen Untersuchungsausschuß!»
 
Die Bundesregierung hat bisher die Lieferung zweier Arten von schweren Waffen in die Ukraine öffentlich zugesagt: Gepard-Luftabwehrpanzer und Panzerhaubitzen 2000 (schwere Artilleriegeschütze). Die Ukraine fordert von Deutschland aber auch die Lieferung von Kampf- und Schützenpanzern für die Verteidigung gegen die russischen Angreifer. Schützenpanzer sind kleiner und leichter als Kampfpanzer. Die Bundeswehr hat Kampfpanzer vom Typ Leopard und Schützenpanzer vom Typ Marder. Der Rüstungskonzern Rheinmetall hat angeboten, gebrauchte Exemplare beider Modelle direkt in die Ukraine zu liefern. Über eine formelle Entscheidung der Bundesregierung darüber ist nichts bekannt.
 
Die Nato nimmt die Bundesregierung hingegen in Schutz. «Deutschland hat der Ukraine Tausende von Waffen zur Verfügung gestellt, darunter Flugabwehrraketen und Panzerabwehrraketen», teilte ein Sprecher am Mittwoch mit. Zudem begrüße man auch die deutsche Entscheidung, der Ukraine Artilleriewaffen und Flugabwehrpanzer zur Verfügung zu stellen.
 
In Bündniskreisen wurde vor diesem Hintergrund auch betont, daß die Risikoanalysen zu Waffenlieferungen ständig aktualisiert werden. Demnach ist es nicht ausgeschlossen, daß irgendwann einmal doch auch westliche Kampfpanzer und Kampfjets in die Ukraine geliefert werden.
 
© dpa-infocom, dpa:220525-99-432004/5

The village in Ukraine where Russians looted, murdered and raped

Vika, 42, left, lived with her husband Vitaly. On March 9, Russian soldiers seized her and raped her in another house on the same street. She later escaped and found her husband. They hid in the attic of a house belonging to a local music teacher, Viktor, 71, for a month until the Russians had left
 
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/10ee62f0-ce2d-11ec-8423-5db7bbe7a364
 
8 May 2022
 
Within days of marching into a rural community, soldiers had killed two men, raped two women and traumatised everyone else.
 
The Russian soldiers were young, younger than her sons, with barely any hair on their chins, but their commander’s words were chilling.
 
“My men have had some vodka,” he said. “Now they want some entertainment.”
 
Vika started trembling. She suddenly understood why, earlier that day, when the soldiers came to the house to confiscate their phones, they had asked her to tie white fabric on her front fence.
 
The one they called Oleg had already started touching her hips. She could smell the alcohol on his breath. “Hands off,” she admonished.
 
“Keep silent!” he barked, dragging her out to the street, addressing her in the familiar Russian form of you, even though, at 42, she was twice his age.
 
A shot rang out from inside the house. “Are you going to kill us?” she asked.
 
For 13 years, Vika and her husband Vitaliy had lived on Dzherelna Street in a tiny quiet village about an hour northwest of Kyiv. Seasons came and went, potatoes and corn were planted and harvested, vegetables pickled for the harsh winter months; swallows ducked and dived to herald summer, a stork nested on top of the electricity pole outside their home. But in early March, days into President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian soldiers moved in, occupying the fanciest house in the street, the one with the solar panels, owned by people from Kyiv. For the next three weeks the area became a living hell.
 
On that single lane of 37 houses, one man was killed in cold blood in his mother-in-law’s doorway, a second was killed as he left on his bicycle for a nearby town, two homes were destroyed by shelling, a third was wrecked by its Russian occupiers, and Vika and another woman were brutally subjected to the cheapest weapon known to man.
 
There has always been rape in war, going back to the abductions of women by Greeks and Phoenicians recorded by Herodotus 2,500 years ago. In recent years it has been used from Bosnia to Ethiopia as a way to wipe out rival ethnicities or religions, seize lucrative territory or humiliate enemies.
 
There has always been rape in war, going back to the abductions of women by Greeks and Phoenicians recorded by Herodotus 2,500 years ago. In recent years it has been used from Bosnia to Ethiopia as a way to wipe out rival ethnicities or religions, seize lucrative territory or humiliate enemies.
 
Time and again, war rape has proved particularly prevalent when Russian troops are involved in a conflict. But although on the night of March 8, Vika’s dead mother appeared to her in a dream and she felt foreboding, she never imagined what was about to happen.
 
The next evening the soldiers came for her. There were three of them: the commander, Oleg, 21, and Danya, who was just 19.
 
“I couldn’t believe what was happening” she said last week as she recounted the events of that night. Her hands shook as she puffed on a cigarette but defiance blazed in her eyes when she spoke of her determination to hold the Russians to account for what they did to her.
 
Oleg dragged her to her neighbour’s house, also marked with white fabric, and told her to knock. They wanted the woman who lived there. As Ihor, the husband, opened the door, his phone rang. “You were supposed to take their phones!” the commander shouted at Oleg.
 
Oleg tried to shoot Ihor but missed. The bullet grazed the commander’s leg instead. Danya started waving his automatic around then dragged Ihor out to the street, put his gun to his head and beat him.
 
“We have to go, they are taking us somewhere,” Vika told Ihor’s wife, Anya. But the commander looked her up and down. “No, she can stay, she is ugly,” he said.
 
Danya left Ihor whimpering and pulled Vika by the hood of her sweatshirt. “You’re hurting me,” she protested as he tried to kiss and fondle her.
 
A few doors down at No 25 lived Valentina, 65, with her daughter Natasha, 41, son-in-law Sasha, 43, and their 15-year-old son.
 
Sasha came to the door. “Take me, not her,” he implored. Oleg pulled out his gun. ‘I’m Russian, you’re not going to shoot me,” Sasha pleaded. As he turned to try to close the door, they shot him in the back of the neck .
 
Vika watched them kick the body away as Natasha ran out. “Where’s my Sasha?” she cried.
 
The two women were dragged across the road and a few more doors down to the two-storey yellow concrete house with the solar panels, which the Russians had made their headquarters.
 
Upstairs, Oleg and others raped Natasha. Vika was left with Danya. “Don’t you have a girlfriend?” she asked.
 
“Yes, she’s 17 and I’ve only kissed her on the cheek,” he replied. “But you I’m going to keep here till I’m finished with.”
 
He pulled down her leggings and knickers and raped her in the living room.
 
“He was telling me to do many stupid things,” she said, shaking her head. “Then at one point he went out to fetch Oleg, so I quickly dressed and ran to the street and back to my house.”
 
By then it was midnight, the houses all in darkness. There was no sign of her husband, so she ran a couple of properties along to the house of a kindly retired music teacher called Viktor, 71.
 

Viktor hid Vika in his home for weeks after she was raped
 
“Uncle Viktor,” she cried, banging on his window. “They shot Sasha and raped me and Natasha, and where is my Vitaliy?”
 
Viktor told her to hide in his daughter’s room, which was empty, as she had gone to stay with friends in another village. But Vika ran home to look for her husband again. “I grabbed my backpack with documents then heard him whisper, ‘Vika’. He was in the attic where we store potatoes. I climbed up the ladder in the snow. We stayed till morning but couldn’t sleep.”
 
They turned up, trembling, at Viktor’s house the next morning. Despite the risks, he let them hide there for the next month.
 
“I’m so old, I am not really afraid of anything, and I was angry at what the Russians had done,” he said. Tears spilt from his eyes. “I kept thinking of my own daughter in another village, thinking, ‘Thank God she wasn’t here’ and praying they don’t do the same where she is.”
 
Vika was so afraid that whenever a dog barked or a car passed, she ran into the chicken coop, where she thought the Russians would not look for her.
 
The only time they ventured out was for one night on March 20, when there was intense shelling between Russian artillery positions in the nearby forest and Ukrainian forces in another village. There was a huge explosion as one house was destroyed. They ran to the home of Viktor’s neighbour, Katerina Ilinyehna, 75, who had a cellar. “We were all on our knees, praying to her icons,” Vika said.
 
Katerina was alone apart from three cats, two dogs and 25 chickens. Her daughter and granddaughter left for Germany at the start of the war. Her son-in-law, Tolya, had gone missing after setting off on his bicycle to a nearby town to check on their flat.
 

Valentina, 65, lived with her daughter Natasha, 41, her son-in-law Sasha and her grandson, 15. Natasha was taken away to be raped with Vika on March 9. Sasha was shot dead by the Russians when he tried to stop them taking his wife. He is buried in the yard. Valentina is now alone as Natasha and her son have fled to Austria.
 
The Russians were frequent visitors to Katerina’s house, demanding that she cook them pancakes. “They would say, ‘Granny, give us tea’. What could I do? They sat on my sofa with their guns.”
 
Finally, at the end of March the Russians were driven out, looting motorbikes, bicycles and tools as they went.
 
Vira Holubenko, whose home they had occupied, returned home to find that the Russians had broken the doors and windows, turned everything upside down, thrown her clothes in the yard and stolen all her potatoes and pickled vegetables. “We’ve been saving all our life to have a cosy house,” she said. “And this is what they did to it. I don’t know what they were looking for — money or gold. We are just simple village people, we didn’t have anything special.”
 
Vika and Vitaliy hid for another week. She is convinced the Russians will return. “I hate them so much and wish death to all of them,” she said. “And Putin.”
 
A month on, such horrors are hard to imagine in what looks like a peaceful street. Last week, Katerina and Viktor sat on the bench in front of her house in the spring sunshine, red tulips blooming, her cats rubbing up against them and chickens pecking around. They chatted companionably as they always have. But Viktor keeps finding shrapnel in the garden. Katerina’s son-in-law was found last week in Bucha morgue.
 
No one’s life was left untouched. Neighbours who were left alone are suspected of collaborating.
 
Natasha and her son left last week for Germany after moving Sasha’s body from its dirt grave in the back yard for a proper burial. “She is hysterical, keeps replaying events and saying her life is destroyed and she should have been killed instead of him,” said her mother, Valentina, who is now alone.
 
Across the country, similar horror stories have been emerging, so many that a special rape hotline has been set up by Ukraine’s ombudsman for human rights, Lyudmila Denisova, 61. It has taken 700 calls so far and is having to operate 24 hours. Denisova says they have had to double the number of psychologists counselling those calling.
 
It is thought that these claims are just the tip of the iceberg, as many women are scared to come forward, fearing blame, and doubting that anything will be done. Forensic police uncovering bodies in the region say many bear signs of rape.
 
Denisova looks stricken as she gives examples, which she says keep her awake at night, such as a mother and two daughters aged 15 and 17 in Irpin. “They raped the mum for three days, then the 15-year-old, but told the 17-year-old they wouldn’t touch her because she was ugly. The mother and younger daughter eventually died of their injuries and the 17-year-old was left locked up in cellar for three days with their bodies.”
 
Nor was it just women. “One of the most terrible stories I heard was of an 11-year-old boy who was raped by Russians for ten hours in front of his mum, who was tied to a chair. He didn’t speak for a month.”
 
Many of the rapes were gang rapes and there are cases where girls aged 14 to 16 have been left pregnant. Among them was a 14-year-old raped by three Russians in front of her mother, whose doctor has advised against abortion, arguing that it might affect her ability to have children later.
 
“This is genocide,” Denisova said. “They were using rape as a weapon — they were mostly young soldiers aged 20 25, they did it publicly in front of other family members, and were shouting, ‘We want to do this to every Nazi bitch in Ukraine’.”

Katerina, 75, lived next door to Viktor with 25 chickens and 3 cats. Her daughters Ina and Yulia left for Germany at the start of the war. She is holding a picture of Ina’s husband Tolya, 54, who came to stay with her. He was killed by Russians when he went to check on his home five miles away
 
Larysa Denysenko, a lawyer who specialises in cases involving sexual violence, agrees. She has been approached by survivors and has videoed their testimony in case they decide to seek justice.
 
“We must act or no woman will ever trust the system again,” she said.
 
Among them is a 32-year-old teacher of Ukrainian language and literature who was kept as a sex slave by an officer in Kherson, the first city to be occupied by Russians.
 
One night soldiers came to her house and herded her mother, aunt and cousin into another room at gunpoint while she was left with their captain.
 
“I like you, so I’m giving you a choice,” he said. “If you don’t want to be taken to prison with your entire family, you can stay with me.”
 
She looked at him in horror as it dawned on her what he meant. “No, that’s not going to happen,” she replied.
 
“It wasn’t really a question,” he said. Then he raped her over and over, her family still in the next room.
 
He placed the house under armed guard. The next time he visited, his soldiers broke the door down.
 
“You just don’t understand the agreement,” the captain said. “You are mine whenever I want you, then your family will be left in peace.”
 
He raped her on and off for about ten days until she escaped in the boot of a friend’s car. She has been unable to contact her family since. “She had left in animal panic and is convinced they have been killed in revenge,” Denysenko said.
 
Ukrainian telephone intercepts suggest that the Russians’ wives have even been encouraging them, one telling her husband “just use protection”.
 
For the women and girls who survive, many say they would rather have died. They are often made to feel that they have done something wrong and are ostracised by communities.
 
The damage is far more than physical. “You have a raped body, raped soul, perhaps a ruined house and a ruined life and will carry the pain inside you for the rest of your life,” Denysenko said.
 
She suspects that the occupiers’ conduct is linked to high rates of violence against women within Russia. “Domestic violence is not criminalised in Russia, so is part of societal norms. They even have a saying, ‘Beat those closest to you so strangers are afraid of you’, so kids grow up thinking its normal, and in the army it’s even worse.”
 
Rapes, carried out with impunity, were also common in previous conflicts involving Russians, including in eastern Ukraine since 2014, in Chechnya and, most notoriously, in the Second World War.
 
“What we are seeing in Ukraine is a terrifying echo of the Red Army’s mass rapes committed in 1945,’ said Antony Beevor, the military historian whose book on the fall of Berlin details how as many as two million German women were raped. Many later killed themselves.
 
“Whether or not the casual savagery of Russian troops with rape and looting dates all the way back to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, one thing is certain. It is a deliberate weapon of terror, not necessarily directed from above by senior officers, but certainly tolerated as a permissible ill-discipline and release from all their resentments and frustrations.”
 
This time, however, there seems a real determination to hold the perpetrators to account.
 
President Zelensky has spoken of the rapes in the same breath as torture and killing, unlike many male leaders who have tended to regard it as a side issue.
 
Karim Khan, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has visited Ukraine, as has Pramila Patten, the UN special representative for sexual violence in conflict. Esther Dingemans — head of the Global Survivors Fund set up by Dr Denis Mukwege, the Nobel prizewinning Congolese doctor who has probably treated more rape victims than anyone on earth — was in Ukraine last week to advise on helping survivors with counselling, legal advice and, potentially, reparations.
 
Many countries have offered help on evidence collection and documentation, including the UK, which is sending a team out this month. The British Foreign Office is the only one in the world to have a special department on preventing sexual violence in conflict and will host a conference in London in November.
 
“I’m physically sickened to hear the stories,” said Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine, who returned last week to Kyiv. “It wakes me up at night.
 
“All rape is brutal but some of the stories I’ve heard take you back to medieval bestial times. You cannot believe people think they can do this in the 21st century.”