Sexual violence has been used against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine, as part of a pattern of torture and intimidation since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, a new report by the UN human rights office said on Friday.
The majority i.e 89% of the 1,004 cases of sexual violence documented since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022 through July this year were attributed to Russian authorities, including members of the armed forces, the prison service and the national security service. The rest,11% only were linked to Ukrainian authorities.
Most sexual violence survivors were men, particularly in places of detention, the report said, but women and children were also affected, mainly in occupied territory of Ukraine.
“Sexual violence in conflict is often misunderstood to be mainly affecting women and girls, where in the Ukraine war context, the majority of survivors are men,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said.
“Men and women require different solutions and approaches to their recovery,” she stated, adding that the report was the first steps to putting the facts on public record to raise awareness of the grave use of sexual violence during the war, as well as improving support for survivors.
Violations included gang rape, rape, genital mutilation and electric shocks of men to the genitals using a Soviet-era military field telephone known as a ‘tapik’, according to the 20-page report comprised of interviews with victims and survivors of sexual violence perpetrated by both parties.
A four-year-old girl was among the document cases of rape perpetrated by Russian authorities, the report said.
One Ukrainian prisoner of war described being forcibly penetrated with cell door keys, and a Ukrainian civilian said he was raped with a shovel handle, it added.
“I am deeply alarmed by the prevalence of these abhorrent acts documented in our report, and fear that they are almost certainly continuing amid the unceasing violence we are witnessing every day in Ukraine,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk.
He urged Russia to take concrete steps to protect civilians and prisoners of war from torture and sexual violence, amid a high prevalence of cases attributed to its forces.