Sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine is widespread and ‘disgusting’

That’s according to the new UN human rights office (OHCHR) report which details of the violation including gang rape, rape, genital mutilation, electric shock and genital beating – as well as other degrading acts of a sexual nature.

Violations have been recorded on both sides of the front line, but the patterns are very different “in scope and scale,” stressed Danielle Bell, head of the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, while briefing journalists on Friday.

Russian authorities – including members of the armed forces, prison service and national security service – are among those affected responsible for 89 percent of documented cases.

Sexual violence mainly occurs among prisoners held by Russian authorities nearly three-quarters of former prisoners of war and nearly half of detained civilians experienced sexual violence more than onceMs. Bell reported.

That the remaining 11 percent of documented cases were attributed to Ukrainian authoritiesand almost half of them are just threats.

Bell also stressed that Ukraine gave the UN mission “unfettered access” to POW camps and other detention facilities.

Most of the victims are men

The vast majority of victims of sexual violence are men, particularly in places of detention, and those interviewed for this report described deeply distressing experiences.

Many Ukrainian prisoners of war and detained medical personnel who experienced abuses by Russian forces said their genitals were electrocuted using Soviet-era military field phones known as “tapiks,” and 155 (27 percent) had experienced this form at least once.

A Ukrainian prisoner of war described being raped with sticks, and another being forcibly penetrated with a cell door lock. A Ukrainian civilian says she was raped with a shovel handle.

Women and children

However, women and children are also affected. especially in occupied territories from Ukraine.

The youngest documented rape victim was a four-year-old girl and the oldest was an 82-year-old woman, and both cases were committed by Russian authorities.

One of the women interviewed said that a Russian soldier moved into her home in Zaporizhzhia and raped her several times a week for a month, and promised that her detained husband would be treated better in return.

Another woman said a Russian soldier forced his way into her home in Kherson and raped her every night. He also repeatedly threatened her with gang rape.

In another case, a woman described how two Russian soldiers broke into a family home in the Kyiv region in 2022. After shooting and killing her husband, they gang-raped her and threatened to shoot her in front of her four-year-old son if she resisted.

‘Almost certainly’ underway

“I is deeply concerned by the rise of abhorrent acts documented in our report, and fears that they will almost certainly continue amidst the unrelenting violence we see every day in Ukraine,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk.

“It must be stopped immediately, whoever the perpetrator is,” he stressed.

“However, given the high prevalence of cases caused by its troops, the Russian Federation in particular must take concrete and concrete steps to protect civilians and prisoners of war from all forms of torture, including sexual violence,” he said.