There was a murder in the media-famous family with seven brothers at war, and incestuous rapes had taken place

The heavily publicized Sannikov-Vikarii family from Zhytomyr, which became famous in Ukraine because seven brothers from the family went to war, is allegedly concealing a probable rape and murder.

This is reported by the outlet Babel.

The family gained attention a year ago, when the YouTube channel of the 3rd Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces released a feature titled “A Mother Sent Seven Sons to War.” It stated that the family had 11 children: eight sons and three daughters.

Recently, nearly a year later, the video was removed from all platforms. This happened after one of the daughters, 31-year-old Nadiya Vikarii, wrote on Threads that two of her brothers had raped her and her younger sister Dasha when they were children.

Dasha was the fourth daughter, whom the family does not mention. That means the mother, Tetiana Sannikova, gave birth not to 11 but to 12 children: Olha and Svitlana Sannikov from her first husband; and Dmytro, Serhii, Anton, Yevhen, Daria, Nadiya, Mykhailo, Volodymyr, Vitalii, and Bohdan Vikarii from her second. The children’s father, Dmytro Vikarii, did not live permanently with the family. According to Nadiya, the eldest sister, Olha, also lived separately, with their grandmother.

In 2004, Dasha died under mysterious circumstances, and the mother buried the body of the 10-year-old girl on the outskirts of Berdychiv without telling anyone.

For four years after the girl’s death, Tetiana Sannikova allegedly convinced everyone that the child was still alive. Nadiya, however, claims that her sister was killed by relatives.

Judging by Nadiya’s account, the family was deeply troubled. In 1995, the children were taken away from Tetiana because of unsanitary conditions in the home and mistreatment; the boys and girls were also constantly hungry. In 2003, the children were returned to their mother, and the family was given a large apartment in Berdychiv.

Nadiya said that it was there that she and Dasha were beaten, tied up, and denied food, and that the girls slept on the floor. At that time, the sisters were also subjected to sexual abuse by one of their older brothers, who forced them to perform oral sex. Later, the abusive brother involved a younger brother in the abuse. After that, he began raping Nadiya by penetration as well; by then, Dasha had already died, and only Nadiya remained the victim.

Even before Dasha’s death, the girls told Tetiana about the abuse, but their mother punished them for lying. “She took [a stick] from a child’s bed, unscrewed it, and poked us between the legs with it. She forced us to say that we had made it all up,” Nadiya said. According to her, their mother also beat the girls, tore their clothes, called them sluts, grabbed them violently by their genitals, and could strike them between the legs with objects. Nadiya says she still has scars in her intimate area from those beatings.

Dasha rarely attended school, and at home her mother constantly beat her severely, even knocking out her teeth. A year after the family moved into the new home, the girl died, but for another six months she remained listed as a student at local Collegium No. 14. Four years later, in 2008, her remains were found buried on a street near the family home.

The investigation did not determine the cause of death, because only a skeleton remained of the 10-year-old child. In the end, the mother was prosecuted not for the child’s death, but for fraud involving social benefits and document forgery: Tetiana had been collecting money for her already deceased daughter for several years. She did not serve prison time because she was covered by an amnesty.

Thus, no separate investigation into Dasha’s death was carried out. The prosecutor’s office said that the issue of exhuming the girl’s reburied remains is not under consideration.

After Nadiya’s public statements, law enforcement opened criminal proceedings over the rape of a minor. The woman has been recognized as a victim and has already been questioned; investigators are identifying witnesses and questioning family members and others in their circle.

At the same time, Nadiya’s older brother, who is serving in the 3rd Assault Brigade, denied her claims. He told Babeljournalists that neither he nor other relatives “saw at home what Nadiya is talking about.” He also accused his sister of trying to collect donations from followers by promoting the rape accusations.

The other brothers did not respond to the outlet. At the same time, one of them, through a lawyer, filed a lawsuit against Nadiya for the protection of honor and dignity.