This article contains references to and descriptions of sexual violence. Reader discretion is advised. If you or someone you know is in crisis, support is available.
Last year I sat in a room in Kyiv at a gathering of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence. One man told us he was a survivor. He spoke softly, and as he spoke his hands curled; a woman held one of them to anchor him. His eyes carried a pain he did not put into words, but they were steady too, with the determination to see justice done. You could see it behind every gesture – the scars he will carry for the rest of his life.
