Russian military couple condoning war sex crimes / Photo = Free Europe Broadcasting, Russian social media
A Russian soldier who became controversial after having a conversation with his wife saying, “It’s okay to rape Ukrainian women” has been reported as a prisoner of war in Ukraine.
According to Italy’s La Repubblica and Il Giorno on the 25th (local time), Roman Bikowski (27), a member of the Russian 108th Rifle Regiment, was recently captured by Ukrainian forces near Izium in Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Former MP Ilya Ponomarev, a dissident in Russia, shared the news via Telegram. He even referred to the captured Bikowski as a ‘criminal soldier’.
Bikowski caused a worldwide outrage. The call was made online with his wife, who remained in Russia.
The Ukrainian intelligence agency, the Security Bureau (SBU), released the contents of a phone call from the Russian military that was intercepted in Kherson on the 12th. A woman believed to be Bikowski’s wife who answered the call shocked the international community with a horrific laugh saying, “It’s okay to go and sexually assault Ukrainian women. Don’t tell me, be sure to use a condom.”
Roman Bikowski (27) and his wife Olga Bykovskaya / Photo = SNS capture
Afterwards, on the 16th, Free European Broadcasting (RFE) and others revealed their identities, saying that the main character of the call was Bikowski and his wife Olga Bykovskaya (27). All of their SNS accounts are now private.
However, they denied that they had made the call in an interview with reporters from Free Europe. Bykovsky said that he was not in Kherson, but in the port of Sevastopol, Crimea, and that it was not his voice that was contained in his transcript. However, the media reported that their voices matched those in the call recording.
Jang Ji-min, Guest Reporter at Hankyung.com newsinfo@hankyung.com
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