From the report:

They [Russian soldiers] took all of the women from the group to a basement in a multi-story
residential house close by. As we were loading the truck, we could hear cries, shrieks, and
different noises coming from the basement where the women had been taken.
We presumed
the women were raped. I think they were there for about two hours. Out of maybe thirty
soldiers that were there, about seven or eight went into the basement. I didn’t hear anyone
order this, but also, no one tried to stop them. On the contrary, they were
encouraging each
other; it was a joke to them. They were speaking Russian so we could understand them. I can’t
remember the exact words, but I remember it meaning something like ‘our senior command
allows us to do whatever we want unless you go to Bucha because no one is
waiting for you
in Bucha.’ I still don’t know exactly what that meant, but I can presume they belonged to a
unit that was headquartered there but was coming to Irpin to act like this. […]
The [Russian] soldiers killed four of those women. They carried their bodies out
to where we
were. The bodies had bruises and blood on them, and we saw that they had each been shot in
the forehead. They were all completely naked; they didn’t even have socks on. All four bodies
had bruises on their breasts. There were marks of rods or sticks on their lower
backs as if
they had been beaten and bruises and scratches around their crotches. There were no bruises
or marks on the rest of their bodies. All the bodies had the same marks. The soldiers ordered
us to load them onto one of the trucks that had run out of fuel, and then they
set this truck on
fire, together with the four bodies.
The other women remained in the basement; we could still hear some screams; I presume the
violence did not stop at that stage. They were crying. “Oh my god”, some were saying, “Kill
me, just shoot me”.
I don’t know what happened to them, but I heard from a friend of a friend
that later, they [women] were moved to Kyiv by Ukrainians, presumably to get some medical
assistance. […]
From what that person told me as if heard from these women, is that the
women who died were killed because they refused to give the Russian soldiers oral sex.”

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Mart Kuldkepp

Mart Kuldkepp Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @KuldkeppMart

Jul 19
In early 1919, when the very young Republic of Estonia had been invaded by the Red Army and was fighting for its independence, it made a huge effort to get any kind of military assistance from the West: weapons, ammo, food, clothing, volunteers, anything.

Not least, they ... 1/3
put their hopes on neutral Scandinavian states, which were geographically close, were expected to have their own security interests in keeping the Bolsheviks further away, and had in some ways more to spare than the Entente, already worn out by a long war by this point.

2/3
But what do you know -- the Scandinavian far-right on the one hand, and the far left on the other, both started an active campaign to discourage any military involvement in the Baltics.

The Estonian social democrats tried to explain what was going on, with little effect.

3/3 Image
Read 4 tweets
Jul 15
A thread on the role of the West in the war, and why non-belligerency is not neutrality

The role of the West in Russia’s war against Ukraine is often mischaracterised. (1/25)
Russian propagandists and their fellow travellers would like us to believe that a) the war was ultimately provoked by the West, b) the West is using Ukraine as a proxy to cynically weaken Russia (‘to the last Ukrainian’), and c) the West is thereby a party to the war, (2/25)
meaning that the war is, in the final analysis, a grand confrontation between Russia and the West. Of course, none of this is true.

But at the same time, neither is the West neutral, aloof from the war and equally disinterested in the cause of either belligerent side. (3/25)
Read 25 tweets
Jul 13
I don't think I should be included in this illustrious list of experts at all, but what @walberque is saying makes a lot of sense to me.

It's possible Russia is making covert overtures to Ukraine as we speak, trying to restart negotiations while in a position of strength.

1/3
Nevertheless, Russia's end goals are still probably too maximalist to be acceptable to Ukraine, and I don't really buy the idea that Putin can sell anything as a victory at this stage.

There must be a limit to which he can degrade his war aims without endagering his regime.

2/3
Also, I think it's true that Russia doesn't have an answer to HIMARS, so Ukraine must see time as being on their side. Over the next few months, Ukrainian leverage in any negotiations is likely to increase, and Russia's decrease.

Ergo: probably no deal to be reached for now

3/3
Read 4 tweets
Jul 11
A thread about how Russia’s war against Ukraine will change international politics.

I took this photo at a protest in front of the Russian Embassy in Kensington on 23 February, on the eve of the invasion. (1/22)
Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine has already lasted for four and a half months. By now, it is clear that we are in it for the long haul. This holds true about the so-called ‘hot’ phase of the war – the battles will probably drag on at least into the autumn, (2/22)
if not into the winter. But also longer-term, the war will bring about fundamental shifts in European and international politics. Its lessons, which are being learned as the fighting continues, will have an impact that far exceeds the duration of the war itself. (3/22)
Read 22 tweets
Jun 30
A thread about Estonian solidarity with Ukraine.

On 5 February 1915, a secret meeting took place in the Austro-Hungarian Capital of Vienna, attended by Oleksandr Skoropys-Yoltukhovsky and Andriy Zhuk from Union for the Liberation of Ukraine (Союз Визволення України), (1/20)
and Estonian Aleksander Kesküla, representing the ‘Estonian liberation organisation’ (named so in the minutes of the meeting). The seventh month of the First World War had already begun, but the Russian Empire had not yet been defeated. (2/20)
Kesküla presented the following proposal of cooperation to the Ukrainians: to jointly organise an uprising of the oppressed peoples of Russia, in which Ukrainians would take responsibility for the southern half of the empire, (3/20)
Read 20 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(