Kseniya Horovenko, a psychologist, welcomed them into a brightly lit room, furnished with a few chairs, sofas and tables topped with small Ukrainian and Canadian flags.
She has heard the stories of so many survivors – women, men and children alike – in the year since Russia invaded Ukraine. A conflict where several countries, including Canada, have concluded that sexual violence was used as a weapon of war.
“Not everyone talks about it. We only hear certain things,” Ms. Horovenko said through an interpreter. “People want to forget a lot of things. »
She coordinates a Canadian-funded aid service in Uzhhorod, a small seaside town near the border with Slovakia, where people have arrived in their thousands after fleeing Russian-occupied territories.
The service provided support to some 200 survivors of sexual and domestic violence. It is one of many initiatives that Canada has launched through the United Nations Population Fund, as part of a $7 million aid package.
There is also $9.7 million earmarked for investigating sexual assaults by Russian troops in the occupied territories and bringing them to justice.
As of October, the UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine documented 86 cases of conflict-related sexual violence against adults and children, including gang rape, forced nudity, torture and other abuse at the hands of Russian forces.
According to Ms. Horovenko, sexual violence goes beyond crimes of opportunity.
“Sexual violence is a humiliation, taking away a person’s freedom and dignity,” she said. It’s the same thing in the context of the war regarding what the Russian army is doing with the Ukrainians. It is the humiliation of the nation. It is humiliation and deprivation of dignity. »
“It’s to say, ‘You’re nobody. You are not human,’” Ms Horovenko added.
“Too difficult to be here”
Many victims were too traumatized to stay in Ukraine, according to Tetiana Machabeli, director of the Uzhhorod-based NGO Nehemiah, which supports Ukrainians displaced from their home communities.
“It was even too difficult to be here,” she said.
The sound of helicopters coming and going from the nearby airport was a trigger for many women survivors of sexual violence by enemy troops.
“They couldn’t bear it, some of them even fell on the ground,” she said.
Her organization and others in the region helped some of these women go abroad to safer countries where they would not feel exposed to the same level of threat.
Now that Ukrainians have been through more than a year of war, aid services such as the one funded by the Canadian government most often find themselves providing support to those suffering the kind of abuse seen also in times of peace: domestic violence.
Gender-based violence, as well as stereotypes, have been normalized in many families in the region, Mariana Stupak, a social worker at the Canadian-funded centre, said through a translator.
The service also provides a safe house in a secret location for survivors and their families, with cribs, bunk beds and toys for children for up to 20 days while they work out their next steps.
Across town, at a women’s shelter in Uzhhorod, Canada has created a safe space where Ukrainian military wives and survivors of sexual and domestic violence can share their stories and heal.
Women of all ages gathered on sofas in a sunny, plant-filled room with coffee in hand and cookies on the table. The sound of their laughter echoed through the hallways.
Upstairs, they exchanged recipes in a common kitchen. But down the hall, a woman who asked to be identified by her first name, Tatiana, sobbed into her scarf as she remembered the terror she had felt at the hands of her boyfriend.
She said she grew up believing it was okay for sex to be transactional and for men to demand it of her whether she liked it or not.
“He choked me so much that I passed out,” the woman testified through an interpreter, her hands clenched around a tissue in her lap.
“I even contacted the police. He allowed himself to say in a police station: “I will strangle you as soon as you come out.” The police did not react. »
She said her boyfriend harassed her, even paying taxi drivers to let her know when they spotted her on the street.
The only thing that made her feel safe was the services provided by Canada through organizations like the United Nations Population Fund and Nehemiah, where she could share her story without feeling judged.
She understands why so many women abused during the war do not want to come forward.
“Someone thinks, ‘It’s my fault; maybe I smiled so much at him that he did that, or I was flirting with him, and that’s my reward.” But sexual violence is a crime against a woman’s consent,” fact- she is worth.
Worst since the war
Gender-based violence exists in peacetime around the world, including in Canada. According to Ms. Stupak, however, the war has further worsened the conditions of women in the territories occupied by Russia.
“We already have cases where the perpetrators are soldiers who have returned for 10 days of vacation,” she said. It got complicated because of perception, panic attacks, stress, chronic stress. We’ve been living through the war for a year, and it’s not the same life as before the conflict. »
Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine, Larisa Galadza, said Canada invests in services like this around the world as part of its feminist foreign policy. This takes on more importance in times of war, she said.
“A sad reality of war is that it increases the rates of violence, gender-based violence and, of course, conflict-related sexual violence,” she said in an interview at the Canadian Embassy in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.
Ukrainian services that would normally support victims of domestic violence may no longer operate as they did before the invasion, she said.
“The tendency is to focus on providing ammunition, tanks and vehicles, on humanitarian aid and not worry about the rest. Our policy ensures that we maintain a wide range of support, that we do not drop these things, because that is precisely when we need to provide these services to women. »
Tears immediately flow when Kseniya Horovenko thinks of the trauma his people have endured since the invasion began, especially those who have been victims of violence.
She said she was still happy that she had not become desensitized to the pain. “Without it, you can’t help people,” she said.
Even with the help of her team, the psychologist believes that most people will not be able to heal as long as the war continues and they will never be the same again.
“A traumatized person can learn to live differently, but the scar will remain,” she says.