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Pardon? Iryna Dovhan can hardly believe her ears: «What? Forgiveness?” he repeats. Then her big green eyes widen and she replies sternly: “We can’t afford to even think about it.” Born in Ukraine in 1962, she was raped and tortured in 2014 by the pro-Russian population of Donbass. She came to London to attend an international conference on sexual violence as a weapon of war, organized by the Foreign Office. Far from the stage she stepped on To tell how the association she belongs to, Sema Ukraine, helps victims of abuse to come forward, Iryna ditches her superwoman role, radiating courage for miles and getting naked. She decides to explain with a photo, without an interpreter, why “it is not yet the time of grace” for her.
In the footage, taken eight years ago, recovered on the spot of her cell phone, she is immortalized with a sign hanging from her neck that reads, “It kills our children.” She is tied to a post at an intersection in Donetsk and her face is covered in rotten tomatoes thrown in her face by passing Russian separatists intentionally mocking and humiliating them. The image that only partially summarizes the atrocities he suffered in five days of captivity, hostage of the Vostok Battalion because he was considered a spy is also what he owes his life to. His lynched body, draped in a Ukrainian flag, then caught the lens of Mauricio Lima, the photographer who, after obtaining the New York Times’ publication of the footage, brought the case to the attention of UN human rights monitors. It appears his release was negotiated by two British journalists, Mark Franchetti Sunday Times and Dmitry Beliakov, Russian freelancer, with Separatist leader Alexandr Khodakovsky. «That’s why I can’t forgive – he comments showing the photo – I don’t know anyone who even wants to think about this eventuality. We’re too focused on survival.”
Iryna, former owner of a beauty salon in Yasynuvata, on the outskirts of Donetsk, only cares about one thing: justice. “I see the people who tortured me dying, one by one – he explains –. He left a few days ago without even paying the third.’ Go to court those responsible for the abuses, even now that the conflict is still ongoing, it is the purpose that gives her the strength to go on. The girls who accompany her, victims of old and new rapes like her, gather around her as if to support her. Together they work to collect evidence of human rights violations to report to national and international authorities charged with investigating war crimes.
Alisa Kovalenko, 35, lead soldier, is one of them. «It is not easy – he emphasizes – because many are not yet ready to speak. I myself have ttime to come out. I figured it wasn’t necessary because I was able to hide the trauma deep in my subconscious. It wasn’t true.”
The weight on the heart that everyone carries is not just private. “I saw women leaving the house naked, looking for little girls, their own daughters, who were taken from them by the pro-Russian military,” reveals Iryna, laying her hand on Alisa’s hand: “It’s impossible, given all of which to stay yourself and every day it’s getting worse». The woman stands and leaves the room on the fourth floor of the Queen Elisabeth Center, sending the momentum of those who greet her with “God bless you!” back to the sender. “How much nonsense is said in these situations,” he replies, “the reality I have to return to is pure hell”.
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