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Sexual violence in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine is mostly attributed to the Russian Armed Forces, with 25 rapes recorded in Bucha following its liberation, and suggestions by Lyudmyla Denisova, Ombudsman in Ukraine and The Guardian that sexual violence as a weapon of war was being committed by Russian forces. Underreporting was seen as a serious problem in assessing the amount of sexual violence. One incident of a threat of sexual violence against a Russian prisoner was reported. Sexual violence by Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces, consisting of publicly beating partially or completely stripped victims, was reported.

Context and risks

In its report covering the initial period of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, from 24 February to 26 March 2022, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) listed four types of risks of sexual violence. Increased military presence and activities in civilian areas, the destruction of homes and infrastructure, internal displacement, and high numbers of women and girls leaving Ukraine caused high risks of conflict-related sexual violence and human trafficking. OHCHR stated that reports to the National hotline for the prevention of domestic violence, trafficking in human beings and gender discrimination indicated a high risk of sexual violence, and that several factors made under-reporting likely.

Sexual violence attributed to the Russian Armed Forces

According to the 26 March 2022 OHCHR report, UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) had not yet verified allegations of sexual violence by Russian Armed Forces during the invasion. Verkhovna Rada member Lesia Vasylenko stated in an interview published on 17 March that elderly women, unable to escape from areas occupied by Russian Armed Forces, were mostly either raped and executed or committed suicide. She stated that these cases were underreported because the families lacked the "strength or capacity" to testify.

Cases

In late March, The Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Iryna Venediktova, started an investigation into a claim of Russian soldiers shooting a man and then raping his wife. The Times published an interview with the woman on 28 March. She stated that she was from a small village in Brovary Raion. According to her account, soldiers arrived at the couple's house, shot the couple's dog, shot the husband "because he's a Nazi", held a gun to the wife's head, and took turns to rape her while her son was in the boiler room of the house, crying. The two men took a 20 minute break, carried out a second round of rape, and later a third round of rape, by which time they were "so drunk they were barely standing". The wife escaped with her son, and testified to the police, and identified one of her alleged rapists from online social media profiles. Russian spokesperson Dmitry Peskov described the allegations as "a lie". Venediktova stated that an arrest warrant for a Russian soldier based on "suspicion of violation of the laws and customs of war" had been issued.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on a 13 March beating and rape of a 31-year-old woman in the village of Malaya Rohan in Kharkiv Raion, controlled at the time by the Russian Armed Forces. Around midnight on 13 March, a Russian soldier entered a school where the woman was sheltering with her family and other villagers. The soldier forced the woman to undress under gunpoint. He shot at the ceiling, and raped the woman. The soldier threatend the woman with a knife, raped her again, cut her neck, cheek and her with his knife, hit her face and slapped her. Around 7 am on 14 March, the soldier released the woman and left the building. The woman and her family walked to Kharkiv and received medical assistance.

On 12 April 2022, BBC News interviewed a 50-year-old woman from a village 70 km west of Kyiv, who said that she was raped at gunpoint by a Chechen allied with the Russian Armed Forces. A 40-year-old woman was raped and killed by the same soldier, according to neighbours, leaving what BBC News described as a "disturbing crime scene". Police exhumed the 40-year-old's body the day after the visit by BBC News. Police chief of Kyiv Raion, Andrii Nebytov, stated that the police were investigating a case on 9 March when Russian soldiers shot a man, two of them repeatedly raped the man's wife, and then the soldiers burnt the house and shot the family's dogs. Police exhumed the man's body.

The New York Times described one woman "held as a sex slave, naked except for a fur coat and locked in a potato cellar before being executed", found after the late March 2022 liberation of the Kyiv region.

Overall scale

Ukrainian member of the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, stated that there were "many more victims" of sexual assault, and that once the victims were "ready to talk", the evidence would become public. Ukrianian lawyer Kateryna Busol also stated that sexual assault during the invasion was much more widespread than the single case announced by Venediktova. She referred to reports of "gang rape, rape in front of children, and sexual violence following the killing of family members". Busol stated that most cases were of female victims, and from the areas of Ukraine occupied by the Russian Armed Forces. HRW stated that it had received three reports of rape, apart from the 13/14 March rape, that it had not sufficiently verified.

In early April 2022, Lyudmyla Denisova, Ombudsman in Ukraine for human rights, stated that about 25 girls and women had been raped by Russian soldiers in a house in Bucha. Denisova stated that the Russian soldiers had described their intention of raping the women "to the point where they wouldn't want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children". Denisova stated that the overall scale was "impossible" to assess at the time, since most victims calling helplines wanted psychological support, without wishing to give formal testimonies. Bucha mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk also stated that 25 rapes had been reported.

On 3 April, La Strada Ukraine, which runs a hotline for helping survivors of human trafficking, sexual assault and domestic violence, stated that rape is underreported and stigmatised in peacetime, and that the cases known to the organisation could be "the tip of the iceberg".

Sexual violence attributed to the Armed Forces of Ukraine

According to the 26 March 2022 OHCHR report, HRMMU was aware of one allegation of a threat of sexual violence by the Armed Forces of Ukraine during the invasion of Ukraine, in which "a captured Russian military member was threatened with castration on camera".

Sexual violence attributed to civilians

In the OHCHR 26 March 2022 report, HRMMU reported cases of Ukrainian Territorial Defense Forces carrying out abuses that typically consisted of "duct-tap individuals to electricity poles or trees, partially or fully stripp them, beat them, including with sticks and rods, and spray them with paint or mark their bodies and clothes with the word 'marauder'. OHCHR stated that "binding partially or fully stripped persons to poles or trees and beating them in public could amount to ".

Claims of intent

Following the late March liberation of the Kyiv region and reports of gang rape, gunpoint sexual assaults, and rapes in front of children, The Guardian asserted that Ukrainian women were facing a threat of rape as a weapon of war. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ombudsman in Ukraine for human rights, "speculated" that sexual violence was being used as a weapon of war by Russian forces.

References

1. ^ Engelbrecht, Cora (2022-03-29). "Reports of sexual violence involving Russian soldiers are multiplying, Ukrainian officials say". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-03-29. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
2. ^ "Ukraine: Apparent War Crimes in Russia-Controlled Areas". Human Rights Watch. 2022-04-03. Archived from the original on 2022-04-03. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
3. ^ Limaye, Yogita (2022-04-12). "Ukraine conflict: 'Russian soldiers raped me and killed my husband'". BBC News. Archived from the original on 2022-04-16. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
4. ^ Gall, Carlotta; Berehulak, Daniel (2022-04-11). "'They shot my son. I was next to him. It would be better if it had been me.' – Bucha's Month of Terror". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
5. ^ Peuchot, Emmanuel (2022-04-13). "Biden Accuses Putin of Ukraine Genocide as Humanitarian Corridors Paused". The Moscow Times. Archived from the original on 2022-04-17. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
6. ^ McKernan, Bethan (2022-04-04). "Rape as a weapon: huge scale of sexual violence inflicted in Ukraine emerges". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2022-04-14. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
7. ^ "Update on the human rights situation in Ukraine – Reporting period: 24 February – 26 March" (PDF). UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine. 2022-03-26. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-04-01. Retrieved 2022-04-17.
8. "First free national anti-trafficking hotline in Ukraine to start today". Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. 2002-11-18. Archived from the original on 2020-02-19. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
9. "La Strada Ukraine". La Strada International Association. 2021. Archived from the original on 2022-04-11. Retrieved 2022-04-16.
10. Trew, Bel (2022-03-17). "Ukrainian MPs detail 'medieval' tactics and sexual violence of Vladimir Putin's army". The Independent. Archived from the original on 2022-03-17. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
11. Philp, Catherine (2022-03-28). "'One soldier raped me, then the other, as my son cried'". The Times. Archived from the original on 2022-03-28. Retrieved 2022-04-17.

• Wartime sexual violence
• Russian war crimes in Ukraine
• 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine