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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Abigail O'Leary

Ukrainian woman describes moment Russian soldiers raped her and killed her husband

A Ukrainian woman has described how she was raped by a Russian soldier before her husband was killed.

Anna, 50, not her real name, was at home on March 7 in Kyiv when she says soldiers barged into the home she shared with her husband before dragging her to a house nearby.

Horrifyingly, she was made to take her clothes off, as a Russian soldier threatened to shoot her dead if she disobeyed.

She then said the "young, thin" soldier attacked her. She said: "While he was raping me, four more soldiers entered.

"I thought that I was done for. But they took him away. I never saw him again."

After returning to her home a short walk away, she found her husband had been shot in the abdomen and left to die on the floor.

Anna told the BBC : "He had tried to run after me to save me, but he was hit by a round of bullets."

The couple sought shelter in a neighbour's house, but Anna couldn't take her husband to hospital because of the fighting.

He then died of his injuries two days later, she said.

Anna said she has since been in contact with the local hospital and is receiving psychological support.

Her horrific account comes amid other similar reports of women and even children being attacked.

Russian troops have also been accused of raping a pregnant 16-year-old girl and a 78-year-old grandmother in a Ukrainian village, a senior military official has said.

Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih, said they are dealing with "more and more" horror stories.

He spoke of the accusation of rape of a teenager and a gran in the Kherson region by Russian soldiers.

Vilkul also claimed Russian troops shelled a boat evacuating 14 civilians from the Kherson region, killing four people, including two men, one woman and a 13-year-old, on Thursday.

Seven were reportedly hospitalised with two still missing as claims that Vladimir Putin's army are committing war crimes continue.

Vilkul said in a video posted on Facebook : "There is news that makes my blood run cold in my veins.

"While rebuilding a peaceful life in the villages liberated in the Kherson region, a task we are currently working on, we are confronted with more and more horror stories.

"For example, the rape of a 16-year-old pregnant girl and a 78-year-old grandmother in one of the villages towards [the river] Ingulets."

The claims come after a missile blast at a train station in Ukraine has reportedly killed more than 30 civilians waiting to flee.

The incident, in Kramatorsk, in northern Donetsk, on Friday is also understood to have left around a further 100 people wounded.

Ukraine's railways boss Olexander Kamyshin said on the messaging app Telegram that thousands were at the station at the time of the strike.

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