Sexual violence in Ukraine during the war-myth or truth?
2022.11.23 06:30
Sexual violence in Ukraine during the war-myth or truth?
Budrigannews.com – According to an international criminal lawyer assisting Kyiv’s war crimes investigations, there is evidence that Russian commanders were aware of sexual violence committed by military personnel in Ukraine “and in some cases, encouraging it or even ordering it.”
English legal counselor Wayne Jordash let Reuters know that in certain region around the capital of Kyiv in the north, where the tests are generally cutting-edge, a portion of the sexual brutality included a degree of association by Russian military that “addresses anticipating a more efficient level.”He didn’t say who was being looked at in particular.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its ninth month, patterns of alleged sexual violence are beginning to emerge. These patterns include the previously unreported findings of investigators about the alleged role of commanders and the systematic nature of attacks in some locations.
Jordash, who is a member of a team that provides legal advice to Ukraine with support from the West, said that it was too early to say how widespread the practice was because investigations are still in their early stages in recently recaptured parts of the northeast and south.He added, without providing evidence, that the patterns suggest that sexual violence was “maybe even more frequent” in territories that had been occupied for longer periods.
They shared accounts of alleged Russian military sexual assaults in various parts of Ukraine:Numerous included claims of multiple soldiers participating, family members being forced to watch, and acts being carried out under duress.
A United Nations-mandated investigation body documented alleged attacks by Russians in a report published last month, citing victims ranging in age from four to over eighty, some of the circumstances including family members witnessing rape.
A March ruling by a Chernihiv district court says that a soldier in Russia’s 80th tank regiment repeatedly sexually abused a girl and threatened to kill family members in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine.According to the ruling, the court found Ruslan Kuliyev, 31, and another Russian soldier Kuliyev was superior to guilty of war crimes in absentia for assaulting locals.
The other soldier and Kuliyev, who the court said was a senior lieutenant, could not be reached for comment.
The Geneva Conventions, which establish international legal standards for the conduct of armed conflicts, make rape a war crime.Legal experts said that widespread or systematic sexual violence could be considered a crime against humanity, which are generally considered to be more serious.
Moscow has denied committing war crimes or targeting civilians, despite declaring a “special military operation” in Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s press service stated that it denies “such allegations” when Budrigannews inquired about alleged Russian military sexual violence in Ukraine, including whether commanders were aware and whether it was systematic.It asked specific questions of the Russian defense ministry, but it received no response.
Moscow’s war on Ukraine “is aimed at exterminating the Ukrainian people,” according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, and Russian crimes “intended to spread a state of terror, cause suffering, and fear among the civilian population of Ukraine” include sexual violence.
Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told Reuters, “There are indications that sexual violence is being used as a weapon of war.” She cited accounts of rape in front of family members, gang rape, and forced nudity.
White Rags Kyiv has stated that it is looking into tens of thousands of reports as part of its investigation into Russian military personnel’s alleged war crimes; Only a small percentage of those are the result of sexual violence.The investigation into Ukraine is at the center of numerous efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to investigate potential war crimes connected to the conflict.
According to Kim Thuy Seelinger, an advisor to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on sexual violence in conflict and a research associate professor at Washington University in St. Louis, evidence that sexual violence was planned could indicate that it was part of a systematic attack or that some level of command was aware.
A woman from the village of Berestianka, near Kyiv, told Budrigannews that a soldier told her to hang a white rag outside her house shortly after Russian troops arrived in March.The woman, who requested that she only be referred to by her first name, Viktoriia, claims that he returned that night with two additional Russians.
She claimed that one of them, whom she assumed to be a commander due to the fact that he appeared to be much older and was referred to as such by the others, told her that the two other soldiers were intoxicated and wanted to have fun.
The slim 42-year-old Viktoriia claims that those two soldiers led her to a neighboring house, where one of them shot and killed a man who tried to stop them from taking his wife.After that, the two soldiers took the women to a house nearby, where Viktoriia claimed that one of the soldiers had raped her. Viktoriia and that woman’s sister claim that the other woman was also raped.The second woman, whose family said she had left Ukraine, could not be reached by Budrigannews
Splattered blood could be seen in the spot where the man’s sister and mother claimed he had been shot when Reuters visited the village in July.After her experience, Viktoriia said that she cried uncontrollably and is still easily scared by loud noises.
The Ukraine prosecutor general’s office said there was an investigation into sexual violence by Russian military personnel against two women from Berestianka but declined further comment when asked about the women’s rape allegations, which have been reported by other news outlets.
Agnieszka Kurczuk, a Polish gynecologist, said that one of the Ukrainian refugees she treated, a woman from the east who claimed she had been raped while her nine-year-old daughter was nearby, said it happened after Russian soldiers told the women in the village to hang out white bedsheets or towels.
Reuters was unable to determine whether the alleged attacks and the marking of the homes were connected in any way.
According to accounts gathered by Budrigannews and the U.N. investigative body, allegations of rape and sexual violence emerged shortly after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and have come from all over the country.
Rafal Kuzlik, a Polish gynecologist, and Iwona Kuzlik, a trauma psychologist, told Reuters this spring that they treated seven women who had fled Ukraine, mostly from the north and north east, and who claimed to have been raped by Russian soldiers.
Larysa Denysenko, a lawyer from Ukraine, said that she is representing nine people who claim to have been raped. All but two of the victims say that multiple Russian soldiers were involved, and some of the clients also said that they were beaten or raped in front of a family member.
According to the Prosecutor General’s office in Ukraine, dozens of criminal cases have been filed against Russian military personnel accused of sexually assaulting women, children, and men.
According to Ukrainian authorities and other experts, the number of victims is likely to be much higher because parts of the country remain occupied and victims frequently hesitate to come forward, including for fear of retaliation and mistrust of authorities.
In a report released in September, the U.N.’s human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine stated that the majority of the dozens of alleged instances of sexual violence it had documented were committed by Russian military personnel, while two were committed by Ukrainian military personnel or law enforcement.
