Russian woman who urged partner to assault Ukrainians added to wanted list

The wife of a Russian soldier fighting in Ukraine has been placed on an international wanted list for comments she made encouraging her husband to sexually assault Ukrainian women. 

Authorities from the Security Service of Ukraine released the intercepted call back in April 2022 and worked with investigative journalists from Radio Liberty’s project Skhemy to track down the two people in the call. 

Investigators were able to track one of the two phone numbers involved in the call to an undisclosed location in Kherson where Russian forces were operating at the time. 

Once the investigators knew one of the numbers involved in the call, they were able to connect it to two Russian social media accounts belonging to 27-year-old Roman Bykovsky and his wife Olga Bykovskaya, née Pinyasovaya.

Roman Bykovsky was identified as a member of Russia’s 108th Guards Kuban Cossack Air Assault Regime, a unit that was involved in the 2014 annexation of Crimea as well as the February 24th invasion of Ukraine. 

In the clip of the call that was released to the public, Olga can be heard encouraging Roman to sexually assault female civilians and that it was okay with her as long as her husband used protection. 

"So yeah,” Olga can be heard saying, “do it over there. Ukrainian woman there. R*** them," adding while laughing, “Don't tell me anything, understand."

Roman replied by saying, "So I should r*** and not tell you anything?" To which the woman on the other end said, “Yes so that I wouldn't know anything," which prompted the two to laugh. 

Olga then added, "Just use protection," before her husband said “Okay” and the call ended. 

Olga now faces up to 12 years for the comment she made to her husband, which violated the Geneva Convention as well as Article 27.2 of the Convention on the Protection of the Civilian Population in a Time of War. 

Investigators from Radio Liberty were eventually able to make contact with both Roman and Olga but they learned little from their conversations with the pair. 

Roman answered when called but is reported to have denied any involvement in the call and Olga confirmed that her husband was in the Russian army and was being treated in Sevastopol for an injury before ending her call. 

Law enforcement officials from the Security Service of Ukraine have finished their pre-trial investigation but neither Olga nor her husband has been formally charged and there is currently no evidence that Roman was involved in any sexual assault cases in Ukraine. 

Unfortunately, Russian forces have been using sexual assault as part of their war arsenal in Ukraine as revealed by Human Rights Watch, which released a report on April 3rd documenting the first cases of sexual assault that could be directly linked to Russian forces. 

On the same day, as the Human Rights Watch report was released, UK Ambassador to Ukraine Melinda Simmons commented on the growing evidence that Russia was using sexual assault as a weapon in Ukraine. 

"Though we don't yet know the full extent of its use in Ukraine, it's already clear it was part of Russia's arsenal," Simmons wrote. "Women r***d in front of their kids, girls in front of their families, as a deliberate act of subjugation."

Moscow has denied any claims that its soldiers have sexually assaulted any civilians in Ukraine, but it is clear from the evidence that Russian forces have been targeting civilians and have committed serious war crimes.