The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine released a report on on Oct. 20 investigating on rape and torture in occupied Ukrainian territories.
The Commission found new evidence that Russian authorities committed a number of war crimes, including willful killing, torture, rape and other sexual violence, and the deportation of children to the Russian Federation.
The Commission emphasized that new research further demonstrates that Russian authorities use torture "in a widespread and systematic way in various types of detention facilities which they maintained."
Additionally, the report documented a number of instances in which "Russian soldiers burst into houses of villages they occupied, raped women and a girl, and committed additional war crimes against the victims and their family members."
Previous reports on sexual and gender-based violence focused on nine provinces in Ukraine and the Russian Federation. This most recent report investigated Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, and discovered multiple cases of rapes and sexual violence in a district of Kherson province.
Among the cases investigated, victims of rape ranged from a 16-year-old girl and women aged from 19 to 83 years. One of the victims was a 16-year-old pregnant girl, three were older women, some living alone, or with young children, or with family members living with a disability.
Sexual violence cases were perpetrated with use of force or psychological coercion. Most of the incidents occurred after Russian soldiers broke into the victims’ homes.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
(Updated: )
