Ex-Ukrainian MP stresses need to restore faith in humanity of women, children

By Aysu Bicer

LONDON (AA) - It is important to talk about restoring faith in humanity that Ukrainian women and children have lost in the war, a former member of Ukraine's parliament said on Thursday.

Hanna Hopko told Anadolu that the ongoing war in Ukraine continues to take a toll on the lives of millions of women who have fled Ukraine and on those displaced within the country.

She said women and girls affected by the war are at increased risk of life-threatening gender-based violence, including sexual and physical violence, trafficking, exploitation and abuse.

According to her, women across Ukraine have been facing the threat of rape amid war.

"Russia has weaponized the sexual violence against women," she claimed, giving examples of sexual torture in the Ukrainian city of Bucha amid Russian attacks.

Previously, Hrystyna Kit, co-founder of JurFem, the Ukrainian Women Lawyers Association, also penned an article for the UN, saying "women and girls have become even less protected from gender-based violence, with gang rape sexual torture, forced nudity, and other forms of abuse" being documented by journalists, human rights organizations and law enforcement agencies.

Hopko also said for women it was a painful period because they were forced to leave the country with their children without any job opportunity or knowing the languages of the countries they move to.

"I, for example, my 40th birthday was March 1 last year. Can you imagine that I spent eight years of my life fighting to stop Russian aggression in my previous capacity as a head of the Foreign Affairs Committee. And I couldn't imagine that at my 40th birthday I will not be in Ukraine, not with my friends, will be like a refugee in Poland with just one small bag and not knowing if I have a chance to go back to my country and my daughter was not with me," she said.

According to a report published by Amnesty International, Russian authorities forcibly transferred and deported civilians, including children from the occupied areas of Ukraine into Russian-controlled areas or into Russia in violation of international humanitarian law.

One of the cases that Amnesty documented in the report was that a woman was separated from her 11-year-old son during abusive screening processes known as "filtration", which is considered a violation of international humanitarian law.

The boy and his mother were captured and detained from the Illich Steel and Iron Works in Mariupol in mid-April by Russian soldiers.

He told Amnesty: "They took my mum to another tent. She was being questioned… They told me I was going to be taken away from my mum … I was shocked … They didn’t say anything about where my mum was going … I have not heard from her since."