Russian combat medics serving in Ukraine are allegedly being pressured into becoming so-called “field wives” — or sex slaves, a report said.
Independent news outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on Tuesday published an interview with a military official who said male officers coerced women into sex slavery – and those who refused faced terrible abuse.
The woman, who she calls Margarita, said in the interview that she has spent the last two months in rehabilitation and is taking antidepressants for the severe trauma she suffered in Ukraine.
Margarita said the harrowing experiences caused her to suffer from constant nightmares and panic attacks.
“Even when I’m not alone and doing something, I still see all this horror before my eyes,” Margarita said, referring to the brutality and abuse allegedly committed by Vladimir Putin’s officers against their own subordinates.
Margarita, a single mother living in the city of Belgorod with her adult children with special needs, retired from the army in 2017 after 11 years of service.
But last summer she decided to volunteer as a paramedic in Ukraine to provide for her family.
According to the woman, as soon as she arrived in Nizhny Novgorod for training, she was singled out by a colonel commanding an armored platoon and set about making her his “field wife” — an informal role reserved for female soldiers, who usually cook and clean and treat male officers.
Margarita said she dismissed the colonel’s sexual advances, which continued even after the train was dispatched to Ukraine.
According to a whistleblower, Russian female medics serving in Ukraine are being forced to have sex with their male commanders. ZUMAPRESS.com
Determined to wear her down, according to Margarita, the colonel ordered his subordinates to create impossible living and working conditions for her.
“I just slept outside for a month,” Margarita recalls.
“While others slept in tents and houses, I slept on the ground next to a road in a small forest.”
Margarita said the goal was to “break” her spirit so she would agree to have sex with the commander, but she insisted and was sent to the front lines in retaliation.
According to Margarita, the medical platoon she was on included seven women between the ages of 23 and 38, many of them married, each of whom was pressured into serving on one or more officers.
“Of course, when we went there, no one knew what was going on. And when we understood, there was no turning back,” she said
On one occasion, Margarita claimed to have witnessed an officer shooting his “field woman,” a medic named Svetlana, in a drunken or jealous rage.
“They made it look like they were Ukrainians,” Margarita said of the shooting, which left the victim permanently disabled.
“[The officer] shot himself in the hand like he was protecting her and he was back from the hospital about three weeks.”
Margarita said that the officer would hit Svetlana with the butt of his rifle in front of the others.
Svetlana, who was married, called her husband back in Russian and told him about the sexual relationship with the train officer because she feared returning from the war pregnant, according to Margarita.
Another colleague of hers, Alina, was “handed over” to an officer in September.
A paramedic named Margarita (not above) said she had to sleep on the ground in the woods for months because she refused to become a colonel’s “field wife.” ZUMAPRESS.com
“They just presented her with a fact — you’re going to be with this one, he likes you,” Margarita said, adding that she later learned that Alina was “passed around” between different officers and never returned to her platoon.
“The girl went along with it,” she said. “And most of the time, the girls have put up with it. They decided it was better to live in paradise in this war – fed and with cigarettes.”
The whistleblower noted that none of the women attempted to flee back to Russia because they could not safely cross the border and risked being shot by their own troops.
But women soldiers weren’t the only ones shockingly mistreated by their commanders.
According to Margarita, male conscripts who refused to fight at the front lines were routinely locked up naked in damp basements infested with rats.
When that method failed, she said commanders also had a “more original” way of getting their subordinates to obey orders.
“You would force [conscripts] to dig their own graves. They would dig a hole and then be forced to lie in it,” Margarita said.
“And other guys were throwing dirt over them at gunpoint. Not even their heads would stick out.
“Then the platoon commander or company commander would run off and shoot at those holes one by one.”
The doctor said that those who survived the shots came out of the graves “fools” because they no longer cared and were sent into battle in this condition.
Some female service members, many of them married, were passed around among officers so they could gain access to food and cigarettes.ZUMAPRESS.com
Margarita said she treated several recruits who had been beaten by their comrades.
In her opinion, commanders would only admit patients with life-threatening injuries to the hospital.
Otherwise, they were given medical care at the scene so as not to draw attention to the abuse.
The woman said some Russian soldiers, starving and desperate to escape waterlogged trenches where they would stay for weeks, shot themselves in the legs.
“When they took off their combat boots I was just horrified, I’ve never seen anything like it since. Sheer blackness with flesh, with dried blood; even the toes were indistinguishable,” she recalled the terrifying sight.
“The only thing left to do was the amputation.”
Despite her agonizing experience, Margarita said she was willing to re-enlist for Russian military service as she was unable to earn a living as a civilian.
“And I would also like to help the boys so that they at least get fed. I have a kind of sense of duty, something unfinished,” she admitted.