"We can't afford to be silent": survivors of sexual violence tell the world about Russian crimes

Iryna Dovgan was captured in Donetsk in 2014 because of a photo with the Ukrainian military she was helping. Having learnt that the woman's family was wealthy, the occupiers started looking for money. About this period she tells it like this:

This social failure between those who arrested me and there was at once. And this hatred was at once. "You s---, intellectual, you think you're getting cleverer than we are!" - said the Deneer investigator to me and left the room. The Caucasians from the Vostok battalion came in.

Soon the Russians had to let Irina go because she was caught in a photo of a Brazilian correspondent that went viral. The photo shows a woman standing by a pole, wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, with occupants near her.

Lyudmila Huseynova, who helped children with developmental disabilities, was captured in 2019. The woman managed to organise the delivery of necessary things from the Ukrainian-controlled territories, as well as Ukrainian books and cards with best wishes for the kids. In addition, Lyudmyla helped the Ukrainian defenders of Shyrokyne.

Lyudmyla survived 50 days of abuse and humiliation in the infamous Donetsk prison "Isolation". All these days she had a bag over her head and was only allowed to change her clothes under a blanket and under close surveillance from video cameras. After that, the woman was transferred to the Donetsk pre-trial detention centre, where there were 20 female criminals in a cell. For almost three years Lyudmila was surrounded by murderers, drug dealers, militants of the so-called DNR and others. The woman returned home only in autumn 2022 during the exchange of prisoners.

Despite all their experiences, both women managed to start a new life and began to help other victims, being actively engaged in social activities. They work for SEMA-Ukraine, an organisation that supports survivors of war-related sexual violence (WSR).

The women say that they were "inspired" by their own experiences.

I travelled to The Hague with Ukrainian human rights defenders as a witness in cases for the International Criminal Court. I was given 3-4 minutes to speak to the prosecutors, but they listened for at least 40 minutes. In the evening there was a press conference, there were a lot of journalists in The Hague, the publicity was serious. And a woman came up to me, gave me her business card and said that she represented an international human rights organisation, the Dr Denis Mukwege Foundation, which supports victims of the SNPC. They did not know that this was happening in Ukraine, because they work with many African countries, but here are such events in the centre of Europe," said Iryna Dovgan.

She began to actively correspond with the human rights defender. After that Irina started to look for other victims, offering to unite into an organisation to tell about the crimes of Russians. This is how Irina invited Lyudmila Huseynova.

In late 2021, while I was still in captivity, I was awarded in absentia the National Award for Personal Contribution to Human Rights by the Centre for Public Freedoms in Ukraine. This award was given to my husband. And he gave it to my friend, the famous Ukrainian journalist Ola Musafirova, for safekeeping. And they decided to personally present this award to me at the National Union of Journalists a month after my dismissal. Representatives of media and public organisations gathered there. And Irina Dovgan came there as well. At the end of the celebrations, she invited me to the organisation. I replied that the most important thing for me now is the release of those women who remained in prison. Some of them I knew personally, others I just heard about. I understood how hard it was for them there. Irina said that with the organisation it would be easier for me to achieve this, there would be more opportunities to talk about these prisoners on any platforms. And I saw women who were also in captivity from the de-occupied territories. They also experienced what I did, so we decided that we will be together and we will be able to do a lot," Lyudmila said.

At the beginning of the work there were about 17 people in the organisation, of which 8-10 were actively involved. The SNPC victims began to look for ways to draw the attention of the state to the problem. A round table was organised with the participation of law enforcement agencies. It was attended by Victoria Kravchuk, a representative of the Office of the Prosecutor General, who took the women's stories to heart and addressed the head of the office. Irina Venediktova suggested interviewing all the victims and sent a prosecutor.

However, not all the victims were ready to talk about their experiences. Only 10 women agreed to testify to the prosecutor, one of whom eventually refused.

The name of the SEMA organisation translates from Swahili as "Don't be silent!" and this has become a kind of leitmotif for the organisation's activities.

If we keep quiet, nothing will happen at all. And we cannot afford to be silent now. Ukraine cannot afford to keep quiet.
The government, in co-operation with various international structures - the UN, the Mukwege Foundation, the Global Survivors Fund and others - has started to address the problem of the SNPC. We were invited a lot to different events. And we started talking. We are asked or not asked, but we speak. We learnt how to speak. We finally formulated our thoughts. And we also made sure that European countries want to support us. They are very empathic, and we are doing everything we can to make our country pull up to them. But we would like it to happen faster," Irina Dovgan shares.

Lyudmila Huseynova notes that victims of conflict-related sexual violence have nothing to be ashamed of. Therefore, the world should know about the crimes of the Russians and punish them. Especially in the temporarily occupied territories there are still many suffering women.

It is very important, according to the women, to achieve now the adoption of a law on SNPC victims, which should provide for the status of victims. The law should also include a list of necessary services to be provided to the victims. This includes medical and psychological care.

I communicated with one psychologist. She said: "You realise that your story is such that you have to work with a psychologist for at least 3 years". But I am aware of the fact that that psychologist is not going to talk to me gratuitously for all that time. And I cannot run from one psychologist to another, acting on the principle - here ten free sessions, then another. That's not helping. It's called re-traumatisation. And all this should be agreed by law," says Lyudmila Huseynova.

In addition, there is a need for an information campaign that will help victims overcome the fear of going to specialists.

Public organisations take part in the development of proposals on the bill. The experience of other countries is also taken into account.