The Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian Parliament, Lyudmyla Denisova, today reported cases of rape that may have been committed by Russian soldiers during the occupation of Ukrainian territory. One involved nine-year-old triplets.
According to him, between yesterday and today, the sex crimes hotline received 56 calls after Ukrainian forces liberated cities occupied by Russian forces in the Kharkov region in the east of the country. In recent days, Ukraine has made progress in the region, which has been one of the targets of the Russian military since the beginning of the conflict. Russia’s war in Ukraine has entered its 85th day.
Among the cases he mentioned are cases of a nine-month-old girl and a one-year-old and two ten-year-old boys – the youngest died. A two-year-old girl was allegedly raped by two Russians. Two elderly men, aged 67 and 78, were also attacked.
Denisova also described the situation of the nine-year-old triplets. “She has serious genital injuries. All this in front of their mother. She was in shock,” she said. Information could not be verified with independent sources.
The commissioner, who did not specify when the cases occurred, said that “the brutality of the Russian soldiers has no limits.” He concluded by saying that these are violations not only of “the norms of international humanitarian law”, but also of the essence of man, of morality. “Overflowing with horror and anger! This is a genocide of the Ukrainian people with a special cruelty!”
According to Denisova, 231 children were killed and 427 injured in Ukraine in this almost three-month war. But he points out that the number could be even higher.
Denisova, in the statement she prepared the report, called on the UN (United Nations) to “take into account the realities of genocide by the people of Ukraine”. “I call on our partners around the world to step up the pressure on Russia, supply offensive weapons to Ukraine and participate in the investigation of crimes in our country.”
Reported offenses
In a report, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Russian forces “exposed civilians to extrajudicial killings, torture and other serious violations that are blatant war crimes” between February and March in northern Ukraine’s Kyiv and Chernihiv. period of Russian occupation.
The organization also said in the document presented yesterday that “21 civilians have described the illegal detention in inhuman and degrading conditions.” “These abuses against civilians are blatant war crimes that must be promptly and impartially investigated and properly prosecuted,” said HRW director Giorgi Gogia.
Torture cases were mentioned in the HRW report. Russian soldiers reportedly beat detainees and gave electric shocks or mock executions to force them to give information. “They put a rifle to my head, loaded it, and I heard three shots,” said one blindfolded man. “I could also hear shell casings falling to the ground, and I thought this was for me.”
According to the NGO, “Civilians described being held by Russian forces for days or weeks in filthy, suffocating conditions, such as a school basement, a room in a window factory, and a well in a boiler room, with little or no food, insufficient water and no access to toilets,” according to the NGO. Some people even stayed in these conditions for 28 days.
In Dymer, about 45 kilometers north of Kiev, dozens of people were stranded in “a 40-square-foot room in the city’s window factory” with little food and water and buckets used as toilets.
In the report, HRW also referred to the case of a mother who, after recognizing your sneakers, found her son’s body in a barn about 100 meters from her home after Russian forces withdrew from the Kyiv area on March 31. On March 19, soldiers detained the 45-year-old man after they found his old military jacket. The NGO also said it has recorded at least nine cases where “Russian forces shot and killed civilians without military justification”.
HRW recalled that “the laws of war prohibit attacks on civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearances, unlawful detention and inhumane treatment of detainees.” “Force commanders who know or have reason to know of such crimes, but fail to attempt to stop them or punish those responsible, are criminally liable.”
source: Noticias
