“Go Ahead and Rape Ukrainian Women”

Iryna Domashchenko

Kyiv-based IWPR's court reporter

Tuesday, 14 February, 2023

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A 27-year-old Russian woman faces trial for encouraging her soldier husband to rape Ukrainian women during military action in Ukraine.

In a telephone conversation intercepted by the Ukrainian security service in the spring of 2022, Olga Bykovska was heard apparently giving her 28-year-old husband Roman Bykovskyi permission to commit sexual assault.

“So, go ahead and rape Ukrainian women, right? And don't tell me anything. Of course?” a laughing Bykovska was recorded as saying.

“Do rape and do not tell you anything?... Is it possible, right?” her husband replied.

“Yes, I allow it. Just be careful!” the woman continued, in an apparent reference to the use of condoms.

“Okay,” Bykovskyi replied.

The married couple are both originally from the village of Verkhivya, in the Oryol region of the Russian Federation. Bykovska lives in Russian-occupied Crimea in the city of Feodosia. Bykovskyi is a serviceman with the 56th Guards Airborne Assault Regiment in part of the 7th Airborne Assault Division (Mountain) of the Russian Federation.

The pre-trial investigation found that at the time of the conversation recorded with his wife - which took place no later than April 6 2022 - Bykovsky was in the occupied Kherson region in the village of Belozerka.

Ukrainian investigators and prosecutors accuse Bykovska of "preparing to violate laws and customs of war, in the form of cruel treatment of the civilian population”. This is part 1 of Art 2, preparation for a crime, and Part 1 of Art 438 of the criminal code of Ukraine, violation of laws and customs of war. Bykovska faces up to 12 years in prison.

“OM Bykovska was reliably informed that her husband, acting in the armed forces of the Russian Federation, illegally resides on the territory of Ukraine and is a participant in an international armed conflict baselessly launched by the Russian Federation against Ukraine,” investigators noted in their suspicion against her. 

According to the investigation, the accused had the intention to violate the laws and customs of war “on the grounds of personal hostility to Ukrainian society and contempt for Ukrainian women”. 

Ukrainian law enforcement officers base their suspicion on the basis of the Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population under time of war and the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions relating to the protection of victims of international armed conflicts. 

These documents describe women’s need for special protection against any encroachment on their honour, protection against rape or any another form of encroachment on their morality, prohibition of abuse of human dignity, in particular, humiliating and offensive treatment, forced prostitution or indecent assault in any form.

The prosecution alleged that Bykovska sought out an accomplice, had a psychological influence on him and decided to realise her intention by inciting the man to commit a crime. 

She conspired with him and incited him to brutalise the civilian population through sexual violence against Ukrainian women. Bykovsky gave his consent and expressed readiness to commit the crime. However, Bykovska's suspicion reported that her husband “did not act on the execution of this criminal intent”.

Their intercepted conversation was released on April 12, 2022, and criminal proceedings opened a week later on April 19 after investigative journalists from Radio Liberty identified the parties involved in the case.

In a conversation with the journalists, Bykovsky stated that the voice on the recording was not his, and Bykovska said that her husband was being treated in hospital after being wounded. She refused further calls and then deleted herself from social media networks.

According to information from the court register, there is a witness in the case who confirms the fact that the Bykovsky spouses communicated by phone. The case also includes the conclusions of a forensic phonoscopic and linguistic semantic-textual examination, and the investigation materials of the reporters, provided at the request of the pre-trial investigation body. These include photographs of the participants in the proceedings.

On December 1, 2022, Bykovska was declared wanted. According to police, the accused is hiding from the investigative authorities in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.

On December 12, the court supported the woman’s indeterminate detention without determining the amount of bail, which can be applied after her arrest. The accused’s court-appointed lawyer objected to this precautionary measure as unfounded.

On December 22, the Shevchenkivskyi district court of Kyiv received the indictment, and the a preliminary hearing began on February 3. The court will be able to close it and proceed with the consideration of the merits of the case only after following the usual procedure of issuing summonses for the accused on the website of the prosecutor general's office and in the parliamentary newspaper. After Bykovska fails to appear on two or more occasions, the court, at the request of the prosecution, will be able to grant permission for special proceedings in the absence of the accused and proceed to consideration of the indictment.