Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
A four-year-old girl. An 82-year-old woman. Prisoners of war tortured with electric shocks to their genitals. Civilians raped inside their own homes. A new UN report lays bare a disturbing pattern of sexual violence in Ukraine war, with Russian forces blamed for 89 per cent of the 1,004 cases documented since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The remaining 11 per cent were attributed to Ukraine, including members of its armed forces.
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The 20-page report by the UN Human Rights Office, based on confidential interviews with hundreds of victims and survivors as well as court documents and official records, describes sexual violence as a recurring method of torture, intimidation and coercion during the war. The documented abuses include rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals. The findings are detailed a UN report titled Sexual Violence in the Context of the Russian Federation Full-Scale Armed Attack against Ukraine.
UN DOCUMENTS GRISLY PATTERN OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE
The victims documented by UN investigators were predominantly men, particularly among people held in detention. Women and children were also targeted, mainly in areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation. The youngest documented rape survivor was a four-year-old girl, while the oldest was an 82-year-old woman. Both cases, the UN said, were perpetrated by Russian troops.
Some male survivors told investigators they were subjected to electric shocks to their genitals using a Soviet-era military field telephone known as a “tapik”.
“The application of electric shocks to genitals with a tapik or taser was a common form of sexual violence used against Ukrainian POWs and retained medical personnel, with 155 (27 per cent) having endured this form at least once,” the report said.
Other accounts were equally disturbing. One Ukrainian prisoner of war told the UN he was sexually brutalised with a baton, while another said he was forcibly assaulted with cell door keys. A Ukrainian civilian described being sexually brutalised with the handle of a shovel.
The report also documented cases in which sexual violence was used to control or intimidate civilians.
One woman told investigators that a Russian soldier moved into her home in the Zaporizhzhia region and raped her several times a week for a month. The soldier promised that her detained husband would be treated better in exchange.
As per the report, another woman said a Russian soldier broke into her home in Kherson and raped her every night, while repeatedly threatening her with gang rape. In another case from the Kyiv region, a woman said two Russian soldiers broke into her family home in 2022 and gang-raped her after shooting and killing her husband. She said the soldiers threatened to shoot her in front of her four-year-old son if she resisted.
UN ALSO FLAGS ABUSES BY UKRAINIAN FORCES
The report also records cases attributed to Ukrainian authorities.
Nearly half of the documented violations attributed to Ukrainian forces against Russian and third-country prisoners of war involved threats of sexual violence. Other cases included forced nudity, electric shocks, beatings to the genitals and body while victims were naked, and sexually degrading treatment.
The UN also documented two sexual assaults and two attempted rapes attributed to Ukrainian troops.
“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 stressed that the findings required accountability from both sides.
“Sexual violence is a grave feature of the full-scale armed attack against Ukraine. It must stop immediately, irrespective of the perpetrators. Given the high prevalence of cases attributed to its forces, however, the Russian Federation in particular must take concrete and discernible steps to protect civilians and prisoners of war from all forms of torture, including sexual violence,” he said.
More than four years into the war, the fighting shows little sign of ending. Russian and Ukrainian forces continue to trade drone and missile strikes, while civilians remain caught in the middle, facing danger not only near the front lines but also in towns and cities far from the battlefield.
– Ends
With inputs of agencies
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
