Sexual Violence Fuels Both Sides of the Ukrainian War
Sexual assaults are common on all sides of the war, and few perpetrators are being punished.
The wolf saved Gayde Rizaeva from the rapists but could not protect her from the horror she was about to witness.
In July 2014, Rizaeva, a mother in her early 30s, was delivering supplies to Ukrainian forces in the country’s restive east when she and three companions were captured by pro-Russian separatists. The militants seized the group—a journalist, a priest, Rizaeva and their driver—and took them to a nearby base, where they locked them up in a makeshift jail. Rizaeva—four months pregnant—says Chechen soldiers arrived and began beating the captives with their boots, fists and rifle butts. She
