The largest number of Russian sexual crimes is recorded in Kherson region – human rights commissioner

Ukrainian prosecutors claim the Kherson region has the largest number of sexual crimes committed by Russian servicemen against Ukrainian men and women.

Of 235 cases recorded across Ukraine, 66 have already been solved, Radio Liberty reports.

Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said that Russia uses sexual violence as a tactic of war, a weapon, and an instrument of humiliation and suppression of the Ukrainian people.

Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General has already recorded 235 cases of sexual violence. The age of the victims ranges from 4 to 82 years old.

Currently, the largest number of cases of sexual violence has been recorded in the Kherson region, with 72 cases. Next goes the Donetsk region (55), the Kyiv region (52), the Kharkiv region (21), the Zaporizhzhia region (15), the Mykolaiv region (9), the Chernihiv region (6), the Luhansk region (3), and the Sumy region (2).

On September 25, the UN Commission of Inquiry on War Crimes reported that Russian soldiers raped and sexually assaulted women aged 19 to 83 in the occupied Kherson region. Family members were kept in the next room, being forced to listen to the violence.

The facts of sexual violence were known after the liberation of the territories or after the victim had left the occupation.

These are only those facts where people are ready to enter the criminal process, and it is not easy, because you have to retell the story again. Not everyone is ready to communicate even with us. 

But again, we learn most of the facts where the most de-occupation has taken place. As soon as the de-occupation takes place, we immediately find out new facts. Plus, people are starting to trust us a little more because they see our new approaches, Iryna Didenko, member of the Prosecutor's Office said.

Didenko confirmed that the victims ranged in age from 4 to 83. The prosecutors recorded many older victims aged 72 and 82.

You need to understand the context here, it's not about satisfying any needs. It's about the destruction of a person, about the abuse of that person, about trying to destroy them morally and physically. That's why the ages are really different.

One of the captured women fled through a minefield to escape a Russian soldier at a checkpoint and was lucky to survive, Didenko said.

Victims remember the offender's face very well, even if a lot of time has passed, which helped to identify the rapists and the names of the direct perpetrators.

But some still give orders or condone the commission of these war crimes.

We are aware that the crimes were committed, if not on the instructions, then with the connivance of the top management. That is why our key task is to collect all these crimes like a pyramid, from the perpetrators to those who organized them to the top management. After that, we will go to the International Criminal Court.

Previously, Ukrainian prosecutors said Russian troops tortured women in detention centers with beatings, electric shocks, water, threats, and humiliation in the occupied Kherson region.