RUSSIA’S female combat medics are being forced to serve as “field wives’ to army commanders in Ukraine.
Those who are refuse an order to become a sex slave are either sent to the front lines or shot by their commanders, according to harrowing accounts on social media.
Despite their frontline role during the Second World War, conservative Russia no longer considers women suitable for combat positions, and those who do join up can only progress to certain ranks.
In 2020, only 41,000 out of Russia’s 1.5m-strong armed forces were women.
But an increasing number of female combat medics are being deployed to Ukraine. Many are based in Russia’s so-called “field hospitals”, which are usually repurposed civilian clinics and hospitals.
Their role is to provide a high level of trauma and medical care to Russian soldiers injured by Ukrainian bombardments, as well as those who are evacuated from the frontline.
Others accompany Russian armoured and artillery units in Eastern Ukraine.
Now, more than 20 women have risked official reprisals to write about her plight as ” enforced field wives” on the Telegram social media channel used by Russians.
They tell how many women have accepted their fate pragmatically.
Accepting the sexual demands of an intoxicated senior officer brings with it certain privileges, such as extra food and better – no doubt private – accommodation.
But those who dare complain risk injury and potential death, when they are sent to frontline positions within 5 miles of Ukrainian positions and well within range of killer drones.
In at least three cases, booze-filled officers pulled out their 9mm Yargin pistols and shot them at close range. One died, and two survived with “life-changing” injuries.
Katia, a 27 year old medic from Moscow, was sent to a logistic unit near Donetsk in March 2023 and quickly found herself fending off her commander’s attentions.
The petite blonde, who trained as a paramedic and joined up as a reservist, found herself treating depressed soldiers who preferred to down their sorrow with Vodka to fighting
“My commander was a pig, He kept fondling me and trying to get me into his room, it was disgusting,“ she said.
“On one evening he trapped me in his office and started pulling at my clothes. He was going to rape me.The following day I was ordered to Bakhmut.
“It was terrifying. I was with the 76th Guards and on the second day I was injured in a Ukrainian drone attack.
“One of my friends was killed because she refused sex and two others were seriously injured by their commanders and will never be the same again”
Another Russian military medic, Margarita, has been on medical leave in Belgorod for the past two months receiving psychiatric treatment following her service in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Margarita said there were seven other women in her medical unit, between the ages of 23 and 38, and that all of them faced pressure to become field wives for officers.
She added : “One got it from an intelligence officer, another from a tank commander and a third from an infantry officer. When we arrived, no one knew what was going on there.
“And by the time we figured it out, it was too late. I saw with my own eyes how one officer shot and seriously injured a female soldier.
“I saw with my own eyes how one officer shot and seriously injured a female soldier.”
She said the woman is now permanently disabled and has undergone five operations to repair the damage the officer caused, adding: “He tried to make it look like the Ukrainians had done it, even injuring his own arm and saying he had been protecting her.”
