WUNRN
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
Ukranian Woman Tells of Public Abuse
& Humiliation by Pro-Moscow Separatists
By Dmitry Volchek & Farangis Najibullah
September 1, 2014 - Wrapped in a Ukrainian flag, Irina
Dovgan is forced to stand at a
A woman berates and then kicks Dovgan as a man holding a
rifle looks on.
Images of the scene that unfolded in eastern
She was detained by pro-Russian separatists in
In the interview, she says she prayed for death as
passers-by slapped her, spat at her, and called her a "fascist."
"Many young women would hit me in the face, on the
head and ears. One photo cannot show all of that," Dovgan told RFE/RL's
Russian Service.
Dovgan recalls a "woman who took her time to take
tomatoes from the trunk of her car" in order to hurl them at her. The
woman then squashed two tomatoes onto her face, causing tomato juice to run
into her eyes.
"But the most horrible part was when people would
come to just watch. Nicely-dressed young men would stop their cars and pose for
photos with me in the background."
Dovgan's public humiliation at a busy intersection in
downtown
Dovgan, 52, who ran a beauty salon in Yasinovataya, a
town outside
But she freely admits to being a volunteer who collected
donations -- food, clothes, medications, and money -- from locals and delivered
them to Ukrainian soldiers stationed nearby.
Fateful Mistake
Dovgan says she wasn't the only one in
"There were many people who supported me. They would
bring money, blankets, some people would bring sleeping bags, so we received
supplies all the time."
Dovgan says she was aware of the dangers involved when
she -- along with a female friend -- drove to the area where the Ukrainian
soldiers were stationed.
"Sometime we would go in my car and the next time we
would take her car so nobody would notice us."
Dovgan says she made a fateful mistake when decided to
take photos of soldiers receiving the collections to show them to people who
donated the supplies.
"Those photos later become key evidence against
me," says Dovgan, after her tablet was "somehow discovered" by
the rebels.
She was taken from her house in Yasinovataya by separatists
from the Vostok battalion.
Dovgan says she was interrogated at the battalion's base
and that she refused to give up the names of people who helped with donations.
Then Dovgan was handed over to a group of some 20 men she
believes were from
"They started to seriously torture me," Dovgan
recalls."It was total abuse. One of them shot pistols next to my ears many
times, so I nearly lost my hearing."
Another called her a fascist and forced her to shout
"Sieg Heil."
Dovgan says she was terrified when the rebels threatened
to gang-rape her.
"They said, 'How many men do you want -- 10, 20? We
have enough people. We can find you 40 or 50.'"
Dovgan said she crawled on the floor and begged them to
kill her.
She recalls that, later that evening, they brought in a
man accused of attempting to abuse a child.
Dovgan says the man was tortured and possibly raped in
the next room. She could hear him screaming.
"It all happened without any proof, any trial, just
someone called and accused the man, and he was being punished," she says.
"I don't know how that man could live after that experience. And I don't
know how I could live after what I went through."
Dovgan was freed on August 28 after two foreign
journalists pleaded with Vostok battalion leader Aleksandr Khodakovsky to
release her.
Khodakovsky ordered Dovgan freed, and vowed to discipline
those responsible for her detention and public humiliation.
House Looted
Dovgan, however, believes they will never be punished.
She has since left
Dovgan says the family will not be able to return in the
foreseeable to their home in Yasinovataya which was looted while she was in
detention.
She managed to retrieve some clothes, her car, and --
most importantly, she says -- her dog and two cats.
The family is now looking to rebuild their lives in
Mariupol. But they are not expecting any financial assistance from the
Ukrainian government.
"We have some money in a savings account, we have
two cars, one very old but it still works," Dovgan says.
"We will work. Besides, what kind of help you expect
from the government when the country is facing so many problems. We absolutely
don't need anything. We will manage."