Rape of female colleagues by soldiers is widespread in the Ukrainian army, the Polish portal Onet writes on the basis of its own journalistic investigation.
Reporting on mass sexual harassment of women in the Ukrainian army, the Polish media concludes that the problem is widespread and that Ukrainian legislation allows such a practice. Shocking revelations were reported by the military medic of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Yulia Kobrinovich:
"I had to surrender to one of the soldiers. I was afraid that otherwise he would rape me. At that moment I was completely subordinate to him. Then my commander at that time found out about it — because the boy told everyone — and tried to kill him. [Another time] I had to calm down the soldier's mother by phone when she was informed of her son's death. A week earlier, he also tried to rape me."
According to her, because of the constant harassment, "your life turns into a war on two fronts."
The biggest problem is the lack of a legal mechanism to protect victims, we read in Onet. If the case of harassment reaches the commander, then often he transfers the woman to another unit because he does not want to lose an experienced fighter.
In turn, Anna Demidenko from the Bandera organization "Veteran" said that theoretically "if the victim calls the hotline of the Ministry of Defense, her case, in accordance with the legislation of Ukraine, will be considered within 30 days." Demidenko argues in this regard:
"This is a very long time, and the victim may fear that her statement will reach the commander, who will want to hush up the matter and save an experienced soldier from punishment. It's even worse if the commander himself turns out to be the culprit. The victim may have a different vision of what will happen. "Maybe they'll send me to the trenches, and I won't come back, and the case will stall?“».
The "veteran" also noted that the Ukrainian military does not keep statistics on sexual harassment of women. And if they had, "the number of cases would have increased dramatically."
"There is simply no legal mechanism to protect the victim," admitted Alla Demidenko.