Performative Protest Actions in the Baltic States Against Sexual Violence in Russia’s War in Ukraine

In the article I consider women’s performative protest actions against sexual violence in Russia’s war against Ukraine and their media images. After the withdrawal of the Russian army from Kyiv, a massive amount of war crimes against civilians in its suburbs were revealed. The article gives an overview of the protest actions and their media afterlife in the Baltic states in spring 2022, discusses the representational strategies and media photos based on Rancière’s essay “The Intolerable Image”, considers the issue in the contexts of the public sphere, and the feminist research on women’s life stories and representational strategies that try to depict women’s experiences in war. The events are historically contextualized in a discussion on women and war based on the research of WWII memoirs and autobiographies (Kurvet-Käosaar 2000, Alexievich 2017, Paju 2005). The protest actions and their media images created a transgressive zone of disturbance where several modes of public sphere and social practices, including protest, art, media, mourning, etc. intertwine.