Using the nickname Natalya, the 33-year-old mom told the Times of London that troops raided her farmhouse on the outskirts of the capital Kiev on March 9 – even though she had a white sheet at her gate “to show it there. “It’s just a family here and nobody wants anything bad.” Natalia – whose rape was officially investigated by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova – said they were forced to flee their home with their arms raised after the invading soldiers first shot their dog. She said the commander of the unit, who introduced himself as Mikhail Romanov, looked drunk – and deliberately crashed her car so she could not escape. A Ukrainian mother was repeatedly raped by Russian troops who killed her husband.AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd After dark, she heard a single shot – and saw the body of her 35-year-old husband, Andrey, on the ground next to their front door, she said. “This younger man pulled [a] gun to my head and said, “I shot your husband because he is a Nazi,” he told the British newspaper. A soldier stands on a bridge destroyed by the Ukrainian army to prevent the passage of Russian tanks near Brovary on March 28, 2022.AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd The couple’s 4-year-old son, Oleksii – also nicknamed – went unnoticed while hiding in the boiler room, mom said. The soldiers who shot her husband then told her: “You better keep quiet or I will take your child and show him his mother’s mind spread out at home,” she claimed. “She told me to take off my clothes. Then they both raped me one after the other. Ukraine’s Attorney General Iryna Venediktova, who has been tasked with proving Vladimir Putin is a war criminal. AFP via Getty Images Soldiers stand in front of a damaged farm attacked by Russian forces on March 28, 2022. AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd “They did not care that my son was in the boiler room crying,” he insisted. “All the time they were holding the gun to my head and making fun of me, saying, ‘How do you think it sucks?’ “Should we kill her or keep her alive?” As soon as she assumed the ordeal was over, she found her son paralyzed with fear and refusing to move, she said. The two soldiers returned about 20 minutes later to rape her for the last time, she said, adding that “they were so drunk that they were just standing up.” A large trench dug by Ukrainian soldiers near the front line in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kiev, on March 28, 2022.AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd “Eventually they both fell asleep in the chairs. “I went into the boiler room and told my son we had to leave very quickly or we would be shot,” Natalia told the UK Times. “While I was opening the gate, my son was standing next to his father’s body, but it was dark; he did not realize it was his father,” he said. Mom and son eventually arrived at comparative security in Ternopil, the Ukrainian city where other family members were already shelters and where Natalya spoke to the UK Times by telephone. A soldier mans a position near a front line in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kyiv.AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd But young Oleksii “does not yet know about his dad,” he said. “Even if we go to the store, he asks me to buy him a donut. “He bought a donut for Dad,” he said. “He does not understand much… At the playground here, he goes to the people and says we had to leave our house because there was a war and there were robbers in the house, but Dad stayed behind. “He does not know that his father is dead,” he said. Ukrainian soldiers walk near the front line in Brovary, on the outskirts of Kiev, on March 28, 2022. AP Photo / Rodrigo Abd In addition to grief, Natalia said that “they can not bury” her husband, who had built their house. “We can not reach the village, because the village is still occupied,” he said. “I do not know how I will live with all this, but I understand that my husband built this house for us. “I could never force myself to sell it.” Members of the Ukrainian armed forces pass by existing Russian soldiers who left behind them after the Ukrainian forces destroyed their armored vehicles. REUTERS / Thomas Peter Natalya was later informed that one of her rapists, Romanov, was believed to have been killed by Ukrainian forces in Brovary, “but I still do not know for sure if this is true.” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has confirmed plans to seek justice through the International Criminal Court for alleged rape, which is recognized as a war crime, the newspaper noted.
