Gender and violence in Ukraine: changing how we bear witness to war

Abstract

ABSTRACT Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shocked the world with its recklessness and brutality. On the surface, it presents itself as a war that aims to revisit the ways in which the international order came to be realigned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Highlighting the importance of structural change, that story is nevertheless an abstracted one about promises made and broken by the West since the 1990s, leading to a series of proxy wars between great powers on the decline – the most recent of which is unfolding in Ukraine. This forum contribution argues that, as convincing as geopolitical narratives might seem, they do not necessarily hold up when we view Russia’s war in Ukraine through the experiences of women, children, and unarmed civilians, who have faced six months of indiscriminate violence. In particular, sexual violence brings a different kind war into view: a nasty war of conquest aiming to subjugate Ukraine totally. Russia’s brutal tactics reveal something about its aims in Ukraine, calling us to look beyond comfortable analytical frames, to bear witness, and ultimately to address as scholars and global citizens the silences and omissions that have led us to this point.