More than 1,000 cases of sexual violence have been documented since the full-scale war broke out in February 2022, the UN agency wrote in a report. These include gang rapes, genital mutilation, electric shocks and other degrading sexual abuse.
In 89 percent of the documented cases, the perpetrators were Russian and in the rest Ukrainian, according to the report, which is based on interviews with hundreds of victims and survivors. The perpetrators are found in the military, correctional services and security services.
Ukrainian prisoners of war tell stories of being raped with objects such as batons and keys. 27 percent of Ukrainian prisoners of war and detained medical personnel interviewed also report being tortured with electric shocks to the genitals.
The UN body calls it a “shocking pattern of torture, threats and coercion.” Most of the victims are men, but women and children, especially in occupied areas of Ukraine, are also being subjected to it.
A woman in Zaporizhia tells how a Russian soldier “moved into” her house and raped her several times a week - promising that her captured husband would be treated better in exchange. Another woman describes how she was raped by several men after they shot her husband dead. If she resisted, they would kill her too in front of their four-year-old son, the men threatened.
The youngest documented rape victim is a four-year-old girl and the oldest is an 82-year-old woman, according to the OHCHR report. In both cases, the perpetrators were Russian.
