Ukraine.Photo: DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty
Women in Ukraine are telling horrific stories of soldiers using rape and sexual assault as further tactics of tyranny inRussia’s ongoing war.
“Nine of them are pregnant,” Denisovatold the BBCin a story published Monday. “Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children.”
In a separate case, Denisova said a boy was raped in front of his mother who was tied to a chair.
A 83-year-old retired school teachertold CBS Newsthis week of an attack at her home in a village, whose location wasn’t disclosed to protect the woman.
Her attacker was not deterred, she told CBS News. “When he finished he grabbed a bottle of vodka,” she said. “I asked if I could put my clothes back on. He barked, ‘No!’ "
People take cover from shelling in the city of Bucha, Ukraine, west of Kyiv, on March 4.ARIS MESSINIS/AFP via Getty
A top United Nations official promised to investigate and verify such accounts on Monday.
“We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence,” Sima Bahous, the executive director for U.N. Women, reportedly told the U.N. Security Council during a briefing. “The combination of mass displacement with the large presence of conscripts and mercenaries, and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians, has raised all red flags.”
During the same meeting, the president of a Ukraine-based human rights group focused on gender equality and preventing gender-based violence, told officials her organization’s emergency hotline has received reports of soldiers involved in nine cases of rape, involving 12 women and girls.
Russian officials denied the allegations of its soldiers engaging in sexual violence against women and children in Ukraine.
“No convincing evidence has been presented for any of these crimes, but it’s understandable that you have trampled the presumption of innocence a long time ago,” deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the council Monday,Al Jazeera reports.
The Kremlin has similarly played down mounting reports their military has targeted civilians — some accounts, Russia claimed, were faked.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ambassador Polyanskiy insisted Russia “does not wage war against the civilian population” and accused Ukraine and other nations of having “a clear intention to present Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists,“according to Reuters.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty
“Why is this happening?” Zelenskyyreportedly saidin his remarks, which he used to urge the global community to act to stop suspected war crimes in his country. “The cynical answer is that they are convinced that they will avoid punishment, they know that the world and Europe will make sure this is forgotten.”
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
More than 4.5 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.
With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
