The soldiers are said to have broken her spine
A 7o-year-old Ukrainian woman was allegedly beaten by Russian soldiers while attempting to cross a military checkpoint after she refused to hand over he passport to occupying soldiers.
Reports of the civilian assault in the city of Kherson began circulating after author and former UN ambassador for Ukraine, Olexander Scherba, shared an image of the elderly woman bruised and bedridden on social media on Saturday.
Volunteer Tetyana Antonyuk (70) was viciously beaten up by #RussianArmy at a checkpoint in #Kherson as she they found her Ukrainian passport, and she refused to give it up.#RussianWarCrimesInUkraine #StandWithUkraine #ArmUkraineNow pic.twitter.com/BfRqOkM126
— olexander scherba🇺🇦 (@olex_scherba) June 25, 2022
While the claims are yet to be verified, the city of Lviv’s 1st Medical Union confirmed that they were treating an elderly woman, identified as Tetiana Antoniuk, who was hospitalised after she and her neighbours reportedly attempted to escape the port city.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared an image of Antoniuk in care, claiming that her spine was broken as a result of the assault. Putin ordered new Russian documentation to be handed out across occupied regions earlier this month but the pensioner is said to have refused to hand over her Ukrainian passport.
#Russians stopped the car in which Tetiana Antoniuk, 70yo, and her neighbors were trying to escape the #Russian occupation of #Kherson region. When she refused to give her 🇺🇦passport — they started beating her and broke her spine.
📸 Lviv 1st Medical Union
Stop #RussianWarCrimes pic.twitter.com/bhhAtNduSk— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) June 26, 2022
Writing on Facebook, the medical union said that Antoniuk is a retired journalist and had been volunteering in the Russian-controlled region when she and her friends tried to leave.
They went on to describe how she was left “half-conscious, with a fractured spine” and “could barely climb into the car and escape from the enemy checkpoint”.
There have been countless reports of violence and potential war crimes carried out against civilians since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, with reports of everything from rape and executions, to Ukrainian soldiers being buried alive.
Reports have also suggested Russian soldiers are growing weary of the frontline, with Ukraine’s defence ministry intercepting transmissions exposing soldiers plotting fake marriages and even shooting each other in the leg in order to be discharged early.
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