repeatedly raped by Russian soldiers in Boutcha, Ekatarina is accused of collaboration by her neighbors

They filed a complaint for the rapes suffered during the occupation. Ekatarina and her daughter had moved the whole world with their testimony. The testimony of this mother from Boutcha, raped for two weeks by Russian soldiers during the occupation of her town, made headlines for many days. However, today, these two women are far from being protected. On the contrary: they are accused of having collaborated.

>> War in Ukraine: a mother and her daughter recount two weeks of rape and terror in Boutcha

Ekatarina and her daughter still live in the same house. The windows, blown by the bombs, have not been replaced. Today, Ekatarina’s daughter, now 14, lives in fear: “The police came, they accuse us of having collaborated with the Russians.”

“It was a policeman who lives on the same street as us who started the rumour.”

Ekatarina’s daughter, 14 years old

at franceinfo

“They don’t understand how we survived…”

His mother suffers floods of insults in her own town. “He said to me: ‘You piece of garbage, I’m going to put you in prison, I’m going to put you in prison for collaboration’. I replied: ‘What are you doing! The situation is clear, they have already checked everyone, the authorities have checked everything.’ One day, this policeman pulled down his pants in front of my mother and showed her his sex”, she complains. In the background, the grandmother is crying.

This old lady hadn’t been able to leave town due to health problems. And that’s why the three women had stayed put. “‘Why did you stay under the occupation?’, they ask us”, says Ekatarina. And his daughter to clarify: “They don’t understand how we survived…“

“I don’t want to leave here”

And to this policeman who suggests that these women could have done otherwise, Ekatarina, responds, on the contrary, that to resist was to be killed. “The Russian soldiers were screaming, ‘I don’t give a fuck, I’m going to throw a grenade here, your house is going to go up in flames. I’m from Belarus, I served there. I didn’t see as a woman for six months! I don’t care what you tell me, my head is full of sperm!’ I told them, ‘Hands off my little one’. They were the ones with the power. I couldn’t take their gun away from them.”

If Ekatarina had not cracked when the Russians left, in April 2022, this time, faced with these accusations, the mother collapses and sobs. To the nightmares, to the multiple rapes suffered, is added the fact of being accused by people, neighbors, with whom she has lived all her life. Raped, then suspected instead of being protected, does Ekatarina intend to leave Boutcha? She dries her tears and replies: “I don’t want to leave here. Let the police search our phones, tap me, do whatever they want!” Time will tell, it will show that I am not guilty. “. We survived, as we told you.“And to conclude : “Time will tell, it will show that I am not guilty.”