Ukrainian Anastasia is sitting in a car trying to escape from the Russian-occupied city of Vorzel.
The date is February 26th.
From the outside, she looks like an 80-year-old woman, but she’s only 29.
– THE RUN: Anasatasia fled the city with her friends. Photo: Sorosh Sadat
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Dressing up as an old woman is an attempt to deceive Russian soldiers. The reason is the fear of being raped.
– I was terrified, says Anastasia Suhiminska who meets TV 2 in Bergen.
– Investigating hundreds of rapes
Ukrainian investigators have been notified of hundreds of rapes committed in areas controlled by Russian forces. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch claims sexualized violence is systematically used as a weapon in war.
“In areas that have now been liberated from the occupiers, war crimes committed by Russia are now being registered and investigated,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyj said earlier this month. Among the war crimes are many rapes of civilians.
– Hundreds of rapes have been registered, including the rape of young girls and very young children. Even a baby, the president said.
– BERGEN: On March 17, Anastasia came to Oslo. Now she lives in Bergen. Photo: Sorosh Sadat
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Anastasia says that she borrowed a coat and a shawl from her friend’s 80-year-old mother. She covered her hair and half of her face before leaving the house in Vorzel, where she and her friend used the house’s bathroom as a bomb room for two days.
– The Russians bombed intensely and it seemed impossible to survive in the bathroom, she says.
But they did. They left the village, located five kilometers from Butsja outside Kyiv and traveled on to Dmitrovka.
– While we fled, we used a white flag to protect ourselves, it should show that we were civilians, but 70 percent of the cars I saw were completely burnt out. I was so scared, she says to TV 2.
– BURNOUT: Russian soldiers have left a burnt-out city. Photo: Zohra Bensemra / Reuters
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On March 14, she was picked up by Norwegian volunteers who came to Lviv by bus. After three days of travel, she arrived in Oslo. There she applied for asylum. Anastasia is now in Bergen.
Died in the getaway car
Not everyone was as lucky as Anastasia. She had several friends and acquaintances in Vorzel and Butsja. Hundreds of civilians were killed in the streets for many days.
One of her friends from Butsja was leaving the city the day after Anastasia.
– Anastasia says most Ukrainian refugees are now traumatized. Photo: Sorosh Sadat
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In their car were Anastasia’s friend, her husband, their four-year-old daughter and a woman.
– On the way out of Butsja, the car was shelled, it also started to burn. The mother and father died, but their children and friend who were in the car managed to escape, says Anastasia and continues:
– When I saw the four-year-old girl and woman in Dmitrovka, I was completely crushed. They cried a lot and I can not tell how painful it was. It must be terribly difficult for a four-year-old to see her mother and father killed like this, she says.
Anastasia’s other friend in Butsja was also killed by the Russians.
– We thought that traveling out of Kyiv would keep us safe, but that did not happen, she says.
The cruel pictures from Butsja, Vorzel and Irpin who show civilians lying dead in the streets shocked the world, but also Anastasia.
– It was so painful to see those pictures. I cried a lot, but the most difficult thing was to read about Ukrainian girls who were systematically raped by Russian soldiers, she says and adds:
– Some of them are now pregnant. I could have become one of them, she says.
The mother is scared
Now she is waiting for a residence permit from the UDI and she is thinking about her family who are now in the town of Tokmak which is close to Mariupol.
– The town where my mother lives is now under Russian occupation, she says.
Anastasia hopes that the family will come to Norway safely.
Almost every day, the young woman tries to convince her mother to flee the country.
But Anastasia’s mother is too scared after what they saw from Butsja.
– In Bergen, Anastasia lives in a hotel that is used as an asylum reception center. Photo: Sorosh Sadat
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– She has been hiding for many days now, and after two months it becomes more difficult to escape. Now she fears that she will be shot on her way out of town, as we saw in Butsja and Vorzel, she says.
Finally, Anastasia says that what she has experienced in the last two months is unreal.
– Before the war, I worked in a company that did tourism. I had a good life. Now I am in Bergen, watching my country being destroyed. This is a reality that is difficult to believe, she says.
The journalist behind the article, Aysun Yazici, is a journalist from Turkey who lives in exile in Norway. She is affiliated with TV 2’s foreign department.
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