Ukraine's Prosecutor General’s Office on Oct. 31 charged Russian soldier Mykola Senenko with raping a woman in Kherson Oblast in 2022.
The Kyiv Independent in June identified two Russian soldiers who were involved in the rape of two women during the occupation of Kyiv and Kherson oblasts in March 2022, one of whom was Senenko.
The findings served as the basis for the Kyiv Independent's documentary about Russian sexual violence in occupied parts of Ukraine — He Came Back — available in English and Ukrainian.
Synenko, who was drafted from the occupied parts of Donetsk Oblast, was deployed with the Russian 109th Motorized Rifle Regiment in the occupied parts of Kherson Oblast in early 2022.
After interviewing the local population and officials on the spot, the Kyiv Independent found that Senenko raped a woman in Krasnivka, Kherson Oblast. The findings were passed to the prosecutor’s office.
In April, Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya told the U.N. Security Council that Russia uses sexual violence as a weapon against civilians and prisoners of war.
At the time, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has recorded nearly 300 cases of sexual violence committed by Russian forces since the beginning of the full-scale war.
Citing testimony from people released from Russian captivity, Kyslytsya said that over 50 percent of detainees suffered torture, rape, or other forms of sexual violence.
He also mentioned the Prosecutor General's documented crimes, whose victimes include 188 women, 102 men, and 15 minors.
The recorded figures are likely an undercount, Kyslytsya said.
"Survivors cannot wait until the war is over," he said. "They need support and justice now."Ukraine has launched a pilot program to provide emergency financial reparations to victims of sexual violence, Kyslytsya said.
The program is supported by the Global Survivors Fund, which advocates for victims of conflict-related sexual assault.
Olesia Bida
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