Russian woman asked soldier husband to rape Ukrainian women; now jailed for 5 years
ByHT News Desk
Apr 03, 2025 11:42 AM IST
Olga Bykovskaya had been served a notice with suspicion of violating laws and customs of war, and was put on the international wanted list.
A Russian woman, Olga Bykovskaya, was sentenced to five years in prison for urging her husband, a Russian soldier, to rape Ukrainian women during the ongoing war, a report from Russian newspaper Pravda said.
Olga and Roman Bykovskaya hail from Russia's Oryol Oblast. (X/@FilonenkoOles)
Olga and Roman Bykovskaya hail from Russia's Oryol Oblast. (X/@FilonenkoOles)
The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv convicted the woman in absentia of violating the laws and customs of war.
Ukraine has been embroiled in a war with Russia since its full-scale invasion in February 2022. The ongoing conflict has, however, been constantly marked with death, destruction and several war crimes.
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The newspaper, cited a Radio Liberty Project, and said that the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) had in April 2022 released the audio of a conversation between a Russian soldier and his wife, wherein the woman gave him permission to rape Ukrainian women, provided he "uses protection".
The couple were identified as Olga and Roman Bykovskaya who live in the occupied Crimea region of Feodosia.
Olga was served a notice with suspicion of violating the laws and customs of the war while also being put on the list of internationally wanted individuals.
Ukrainian officials had completed their investigation into Olga and the concerned matter and filed an indictment against her with the court in December 2022.
Starting from the date of her arrested, the court has held her guilty now. Olga is also required to compensate the state of Ukraine for legal costs of more than Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) 15,000 (approximately US$362). This also includes a foreign linguistic, semantic and textual examination of the sound of Olga and her husband's voices.
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The court also took into consideration the video version of the Radio Liberty's Skhemy investigation, wherein the conversation between the journalists and the couple formed the basis of the criminal proceedings.
Olga's sentence will reportedly become effective once the time limit for filing an appeal expires.
Roman Bykovskaya, a paratrooper, was part of the Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He and his wife Olga hail from Russia's Oryol Oblast.
However, Roman claimed that the voice in the conversations audio released by SSU was not his. This is in contradiction to the finding that the voice was the same as the one in law enforcement officers' recordings. The report further mentioned that Olga's voice was also found to be a perfect match with the recording.
The accused woman told reporters that Roman had been receiving treatment at a hospital in Sevastopol after being wounded, saying that she didn't know of his exact whereabouts.
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