Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9877600

[Warning: The article contains content that may distress some readers.]

The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has concluded that Russian forces have committed a variety of war crimes in Ukraine, including sexual and gender-based violence against individuals as young as four and as old as 82.

“We’ve not only pursued searches for evidence directly at known scenes of crimes, but we’ve also been monitoring open sources of information, such as social media channels,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the lead prosecutor for the southern Kherson region, which was controlled by Russian forces for almost nine months until late 2022.

Tracking down people to provide testimony is difficult, as is identifying exactly where the crimes occurred, Kovalenko said.

“Victims were brought there with their faces covered,” he said.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    16
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    Sexual violence is so prevalent in the Russian armed forces even within their own troops that it shouldn’t surprise anybody that they treat Ukrainians this way.

    Sexual violence (and other physical and emotional abusive behaviour) between their own officers and their subordinates is such a widespread phenomenon that it has its own word - Dedovshchina.

    Dedovshchina encompasses a variety of subordinating and humiliating activities undertaken by the junior ranks, from doing the chores of the senior ranks, to violent and sometimes deadly physical and psychological abuse, not unlike an extremely vicious form of bullying or torture, including sexual torture and anal rape.

    There have been occasions where soldiers have been seriously injured or killed.

    The Russian armed forces are absolutely evil. I have zero doubt of these reports.

    • @gravitas_deficiency
      link
      English
      56 months ago

      If you think their regular armed forces are bad, check out the shit that Wagner got into. Wagner has a ton of ties to the prison system and organized crime - particularly, they model their power dynamic after shit that you typically see in Russian prisons, with everything that that entails.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    46 months ago

    Is anyone surprised by this? It’s literally such a well documented fact about the Russian millitary that people preemptively schedule abortion clinic appointments when the russian millitary comes around.

  • AutoTL;DRB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    36 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Ukrainian authorities are now using some of those accounts to try to put together a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) that would establish that the use of sexual violence and torture has been systematic, deliberate and, ultimately, directed by the Kremlin.

    On March 21, a so-called green corridor opened — a temporary and localized ceasefire allowing civilians to pass from areas with active fighting — and one of Daria’s captors let her go.

    Russia has refused to directly address allegations made by the United Nations Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine that it’s used torture and sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians in a way that is widespread and systematic.

    “We’ve not only pursued searches for evidence directly at known scenes of crimes, but we’ve also been monitoring open sources of information, such as social media channels,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the lead prosecutor for the southern Kherson region, which was controlled by Russian forces for almost nine months until late 2022.

    In particular, he referenced the case of one woman from a village outside of Kherson who reported being repeatedly raped by a Russian soldier while her young daughter listened to her mother’s cries from the next room.

    The UN has singled out the secret prison for “egregious violations” of human rights, and Holikov says, while there, he endured torture that included techniques that Ukrainian prosecutors and UN representatives told CBC News constitute a form of sexual violence.


    The original article contains 1,670 words, the summary contains 241 words. Saved 86%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!