Ukraine accuses Russian soldiers of using rape as a method of warfare. These two women say that justice is hard to find

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Brovary District, Ukraine (CNN) ––

In a small village that Russian soldiers occupied at the beginning of the war while trying unsuccessfully to take the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, two women recount living with the pain of various traumas: destruction, death and rape.

One of the women – who said her husband was killed by Russian troops the same night she was raped – left her hometown in the Brovary district to save herself and her teenage son from further pain.

The other woman stayed and is now seeking justice from the Ukrainian authorities.

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Since the Russian invasion, Ukrainian officials have detected multiple cases of sexual abuse of women, children and men by Russian forces who authorities say use rape and other sexual crimes as weapons of war.

Rape and other types of sexual assault in Ukraine

CNN spoke to the women in the Brovary district about their harrowing experience and vowed not to share their real names, or those of their family members, to protect their privacy.

They are just two of hundreds of Ukrainians who have reported alleged war crimes.

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"700 complaints have been filed since April 1," said Lyudmila Denisova, a human rights ombudsman in Ukraine's parliament.

Those cases include at least one in which a child was allegedly raped.

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Denisova has the daunting task of collecting evidence on reported war crimes in connection with the Russian invasion.

She has also set up a hotline to provide free psychological support to victims or those who have witnessed sexual assaults, she said.

"It's very difficult. You know, someone has to do it. For our fighters on the front lines, it's much more difficult for them. They are in danger every minute. This is my own front line," he said.

Rape cases are investigated by a special prosecutor's office, Denisova said.

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"From the details we have received, we are 100% sure that war crimes have been committed," said Olexiy Bonuk, head of the Prosecution Department investigating the case.

The women CNN spoke with said their suffering has been intensified by gossip in the village about what happened to them and the stigma inflicted on rape survivors.

But they are determined to fight.

Two women recount rape in Ukraine

The women were neighbors in a village in the Brovary district, about an hour's drive from the outskirts of Kyiv.

Both women are married and in their early 40s.

Both say Russian soldiers attacked them.

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"We are the youngest women in this town. And they wanted skinny women," said one of the survivors, who heard the soldiers talking.

"What that son of a bitch did to me was horrible. He made me…"

The woman, whom CNN calls Nika, is silent.

Her eyes lower.

"I can't talk about it. I'm embarrassed and scared," she completed.

Nika points to a bullet hole made by the Russians who she says raped her.

The Russians began to engage the Ukrainian troops in the Brovary district on March 1.

Nika noted that she was first approached on March 9, when she was at home with her husband.

Russian soldiers and her commander came to her house and demanded that she and her husband hand over their phones.

The men left after a Russian soldier fired a bullet that hit her house and grazed her commander, she said.

Two of the younger Russian soldiers returned in the dead of night, Nika said.

They separated her from her husband, grabbed her by the hood of her coat and dragged her out of her home and down the street to a neighbor's house where another survivor, whom CNN calls Dasha, was sleeping at the time. .

Her husband, daughter and Dasha's mother, Valentina, were also at the scene.

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When the Russians came and knocked on the door, "they hit it so hard it shook everything, even made the windows rattle," Valentina described.

Dasha's husband went out to talk to the soldiers, he said, while Nika stood outside and listened as the men argued.

Nika recounted that moments later she heard the sound of cold-blooded murder.

"There was a short conversation. And then it was a sound, like bang! A shot like fireworks," Nika said.

"My body was shaking."

Afterward, he saw Russian soldiers pushing Dasha's husband's body out of sight.

The soldiers then led her and Dasha down the street to a house that was left vacant during the invasion, Nika said.

She heard the soldiers calling each other by her name: Danya and Oleg.

"As we walked over there, Danya said, 'Guess what, Oleg? Look who we're going to fuck!'" Nika said, apologizing for quoting her profanity.

An empty house in the village, where Nika says the rape occurred.

Even after trying to reason with him, Nika claimed that Danya raped her downstairs.

Danya told Nika that she was 19 years old, she said.

"I told him I was 41, my youngest son was the same age as him. I asked him if he had a girlfriend. He said, 'Yes, she's 17. But I didn't have sex with her.'"

Nika asked him, "Why are they doing this to me? He replied that he hadn't seen a woman in two weeks."

Anger rises in his voice as he recounts the conversation: "Can you believe that? It's crazy."

Escaping from the bullets and the signs

Nika and Dasha survived the attacks.

But soon they faced another threat.

The town came under fire during a fierce battle between Russian and Ukrainian forces.

In the midst of the confrontation, the women escaped their captors, saying the soldiers were too scared to pursue them for long.

But escaping his attackers meant traversing an active battle zone.

"There were bullets flying from the woods. I thought, 'Oh my God, someone will see me and kill me,'" Nika recalled.

In great danger, the women managed to return to their homes.

Dasha then had to face the horror of not only what she had just suffered, but also the need to mourn her murdered husband.

While the village was still under Russian occupation, Dasha and Valentina tried to dig a grave, but the ground was too frozen.

Gathering all her strength, Dasha went to a Russian commander for help in burying her husband, Valentina said.

A grandmother says she had to help bury her son-in-law after he was shot by Russian troops.

"She told him: 'Your men came at night and killed him. Help us bury him,'" Valentina recounted.

The Russian commander relented, he said, and soldiers helped bury Dasha's husband in the family's backyard.

However, a proper burial was out of the question for the duration of the occupation.

To make matters worse, gossip soon spread in the town.

Neighbors began to accuse the women of being collaborators and receiving special favors in exchange for sex.

"I wasn't collaborating with them. I was afraid of them. It's crazy!" Dasha told CNN, exasperated.

"Did they see it? Did they? They didn't see it. I can make accusations too. It doesn't make them true.

Upon being re-victimized – after the rapes came the rumors – Nika said: "God sees everything."

She intends to do whatever it takes to help prosecutors prove the assault.

"I want them [the soldiers] to be punished by a judge. They must decide what to do with them: shoot them, kill them, tear them to pieces. I'm fucking them."