UN Commission publishes report on rape and torture in Russian-occupied territories

Russian soldiers raped a 16-year-old pregnant girl and numerous women aged 19 to 83 during their occupation of Kherson Oblast. The victims were beaten, and some of them had broken ribs and knocked-out teeth.

Source: Ukrinform with reference to a report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, presented to the UN General Assembly and published on Friday

Details: The document states that the Commission has focused its recent investigations on Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. The documented cases of rape by the Russian military occurred between March 2022 and July 2022 in small villages in Kherson Oblast.

In the cases investigated, the rape victims were a 16-year-old girl and women aged 19 to 83. Most of them were in a vulnerable condition. One of the victims was a 16-year-old pregnant girl, three were elderly women, some lived alone or with their children, or with a family member with a disability.

The victims were among the women who had remained in their villages after the occupation of the territory by Russian forces to care for the elderly or relatives with disabilities, to look after their property, or because they were unable to escape. The documented cases of rape were committed with the use of force or psychological coercion. Most incidents occurred after the perpetrators broke into the victims' homes and threatened them with weapons or the intention to kill their relatives. In some cases, the same perpetrator raped the victim two or more times. In two cases, several perpetrators raped the victims at once. One of the victims and her husband were shot dead by Russian soldiers after they reported the rape.

Moreover, the Russian military committed additional acts of violence against the victims of rape, including brutal beatings, suffocation, strangulation, cuts and shooting close to the victim's head. In a number of cases, family members were witnesses of the rape.

One witness reported that when a soldier raped her pregnant daughter, he said: "It's not scary, everyone does it".

The document describes in detail several cases of rape and sexual violence committed by the Russian military in Kherson Oblast.

"In March 2022, a Russian soldier came to the house of an 83-year-old woman and forced her to open the door. He questioned her on whether she knew persons who cooperated with the Ukrainian armed forces and beat her with his rifle. The soldier ordered her to undress, raped her, and continued to rape and beat her for several hours. He threatened to rape the woman’s husband, who lived with a disability and was present in the house. The soldier stole some belongings," the report says.

In another case that took place in March and April 2022, several groups of Russian soldiers repeatedly visited a married couple's home and shop. The victim reported that the soldiers "looted, forced her to cook for them, took showers and slept in her house. During one visit in April 2022, Russian soldiers locked the husband in a room." After that, one of the soldiers threatened to kill the 59-year-old woman and sexually harassed her, while repeatedly reloading his rifle. Later, in April 2022, three Russian soldiers broke into the house at night and shot at the man, but missed. Two soldiers beat the woman with pistols, kicked her, threatened to shoot her, tore off her clothes and raped her. She tried to escape, but they grabbed her, dragged her into the house and raped her again.

In May 2022, three Russian soldiers came to the home of a married couple who had stayed to look after their grandmother. They beat the 52-year-old man, and the 50-year-old woman was raped by all three of them in turn. The couple reported the rape to a Russian military commander. Their neighbours said that afterwards, three different soldiers "were looking for a woman who reported the rape", came to the couple's house and shot them both dead.

In July 2022, a Russian soldier came to the home of a 75-year-old woman, where she stayed to protect her property. The soldier attacked her, hit her in the face, chest and ribs, and choked her while interrogating her. He ordered her to undress, and when she refused, he tore off her clothes, cut her stomach with a small sharp object and raped her several times. The next morning, he raped her again and beat her. As a result, the victim had several broken ribs and knocked-out teeth. 

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