Russian woman sentenced in absentia for urging soldier husband to rape women

The Shevchenkivskyy District Court of Kyiv has sentenced in absentia Olga Bykovska, a Russian citizen and wife of a Russian serviceman, to imprisonment for violating the laws and customs of war. Bykovska had urged her husband to rape Ukrainian women in occupied territories, as reported by the media company, Radio Liberty, which obtained the court verdict.

Olga Bykovska with her military husband, who participated in the annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Photo: Radio Liberty

The Bykovsky couple became widely known in 2022 when the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) released an intercepted phone conversation between them. In the recording, the convicted woman laughingly encouraged her husband to “rape Ukrainian women”.

When her husband, Oleg, clarified whether she indeed permitted him to rape civilian women in the occupied territories, she replied: “Yes, I allow it. Just protect yourselfі .

Journalists of Radio Liberty promptly identified the individuals involved in the dialogue. It turned out that after the occupation of Crimea, the couple illegally crossed the border of Ukraine and moved to the Crimean peninsula from the Oryol region of Russia. The convicted woman’s husband likely served with paratroopers who participated in the annexation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, and four years later, he moved his family to the occupied territory.

In communication with journalists, the couple insisted they were not involved in the conversation, but after the investigation was published, Olga deleted her social media page. It remains unknown whether the occupiers’ family remains in Feodosia or has moved elsewhere.

In 2022, information surfaced about the possible capture of the convicted woman’s husband.

Photo: Radio Svoboda

Investigators involved in the case stated that Bykovska made her statements based on “personal animosity towards Ukrainian society and contempt for Ukrainian women”.

At the time of the phone conversation, her husband was in the Kherson region, where more cases of sexual violence committed by Russians have been recorded than in other regions, with some episodes lasting up to six months. Some Russian servicemen appear in multiple cases of sexual violence, with children among the victims.

As a result, the Shevchenkivskyy District Court of Kyiv sentenced Bykovska in absentia to five years in prison. Additionally, she has been placed on an international wanted list.

It is recalled that sexual violence perpetrated by Russian soldiers in Ukraine is part of Russia’s “military strategy,” according to the UN. The majority of known victims of sexual violence are women who were alone at home.

The Human Rights Centre ZMINA reported on some identified Russian servicemen suspected of committing such crimes, including:

• Shamil Makhmudov, who raped a woman during the occupation of the Zaporizhzhia region;
• Artem Pronchenko and Oleksandr Gladkov, who allegedly kidnapped, beat, and raped a mother of two children in the occupied Zaporizhzhia region;
• Roman Popov, suspected of raping an illegally detained man in Kherson;
• Yevhen Chornoknyzhnyi and Vadym Shakhmatov, suspected of a series of rapes in the Kyiv region in 2022;
• Oleksandr Radnatarov, Kyrylo Kholmurzayev, and Belikt Zhugdurov, suspected of raping a woman in the Kyiv region after threatening to kill her mother and child;
• Akhmerov Emil, Mammi Mammiiev, and Kostyantyn Shlyapnikov, who in 2022 abducted a woman from her home and raped her in the Kharkiv region;
• Baila Bardanova, suspected of raping a woman in the Kyiv region;
• Rinat Khakimyanov and Arslan Salikhov, suspected of raping a pregnant woman in the Kyiv region;
• Bulat Fassakhov, suspected of a rape that lasted several days in the Kyiv region;

Mykhailo Romanov, accused of raping a woman in the village of Shevchenkove in the Kyiv region. This case was one of the first such incidents to become known in the media.