A sickeningly nonchalant conversation
In a sickening audio phone call intercepted by Ukrainian intelligence, a Russian soldier’s wife can be heard telling her husband he is free to rape women so long as he uses protection.
As you can hear in this translated clip taken from the official Ukraine Security Service, the woman – now identified as a 27-year-old from Crimea – says “rape women and don’t tell me anything, you understand?”, laughing as her sentence trails off.
The soldier then repeats the statement back to her to check if he heard her right, to which she says: “yes, so that I don’t know anything”, both laughing once again.
He confirms that he has her permission once more – “May I [rape women]?” – to which she simply responds: “Yes, I allow, but use protection” – laughing for a third and final time.
While the recording is yet to be fully verified, with help from a joint investigative project run by RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service, Radio Free Europe reportedly identified the two individuals as Roman and Olga Bykovskaya. Roman is said to have been operating in the Kherson region when the phone call was made and is thought to be currently stationed in Sevastapol.
The pair confirmed that Roman is in fact fighting in Ukraine, with his mother also having shared images of him on social media, but both deny the allegations that they are the individuals speaking on the call.
Reports of rape, sexual abuse and all manner of atrocities have been coming out of Ukraine since the invasion began, with regions such as Bucha, Mariupol and Borodianka, just to name a few, all having been subjected to unimaginable violence at the hands of Russian occupiers.
In Bucha, where the Russian presence has plagued civilian life in recent weeks, some 25 women and girls were said to have been “systematically raped” by Putin’s forces, leaving at least nine pregnant local officials imploring for help.
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