[이데일리 권혜미 기자] “Russian soldier said ‘I shot you because your husband is a Nazi'”
Natalia (33, pseudonym), who recalled the ‘nightmare’ that took place on March 9, said in a suffocating voice, exposing the atrocities of Russian soldiers.
During an interview with the British daily The Times on the 28th (local time), Natalya had to bring up the terrible tragedy she had experienced. He was driven by the desire to inform the Russian military of the barbaric acts committed in Ukraine.
Natalia, who fled to western Ternopil from the Ukrainian capital Kiiu, originally lived with her husband in a house next to a pine forest in a small village in Brovari, on the eastern outskirts of Kiiu.
Then, on the 8th, when the news that the Russian army had entered Brovari, the couple hung a white sheet in front of the door as a civilian sign.
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But the next morning, gunshots were heard and the door was shattered, and when Natalia and her husband came out of the house with their hands above their heads, several Russian soldiers and a dog that had been shot and killed were strewn across the yard. Natalya was initially a soldier. They said, “I didn’t know there were people there,” “I thought I was going to training, I didn’t know that I was going to war.” Among them, a soldier called ‘Vitali’ even apologized for killing the dog, saying that he had a dog he had in his hometown.
However, the commander, Mikhail Romanov, flirted with Natalia, saying, “If it had not been for war, I would have dated you.” He became aggressive when he found a camouflage jacket in Natalia’s husband’s car. Commander Romanov stole Natalia’s car, drove it to a tree, smashed it, and left the house.
I thought the commotion had passed, but as the sun went down, it started to get noisy outside again. As soon as Natalia’s husband went outside to check on the situation, gunshots were heard.
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It turned out that Commander Romanov had returned with a man in his twenties in a black uniform.
Natalya cried out, “Where is your husband?” when she found her husband lying next to the door outside the window. The man in his 20s pointed a gun at Natalia’s head and said, “I shot you because your husband is a Nazi.” Natalya immediately called out to his son to hide in the boiler room.
The man then threatened Natalya, saying, “If you don’t keep your mouth shut, I’ll bring your son and show you his mother’s brain all over the house.”
Afterwards, Russian soldiers went to and from Natalya’s house three times and sexually assaulted him. And when they last came home drunk and fell asleep, Natalya hurried out of the house with his son.
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Natalya’s son asked, “Are we going to be shot like this guy here?”, with his father’s body in the yard, but it was dark and unrecognizable. He still believes his dad is alive.
Her husband’s sister, whom she met in Ternopil, took Natalia to the police station, where he was able to confirm the identity of the Romanov commander who raped him on social media. The soldier who committed the crime has not been identified, but he remembers his face.
Natalya said, “I don’t know how I will live with all these things in the future, but I don’t think I can sell this house that my husband built for us.”
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Irina Benedikova said last week that she had launched an official investigation into Russian soldiers who murdered Natalia’s husband and sexually assaulted her.
