Ukrainian detainees reported rape, genital mutilation and electric shocks. Russian authorities have been responsible for 89% of more than 1,000 documented cases of sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war during Moscow’s full-scale war against Ukraine, according to a UN report. The report, published on Friday by the UN Human Rights Office, documents abuses including rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals, as well as other degrading acts of a sexual nature. The cases were documented between the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022 and the end of July this year, both in Ukraine and in detention facilities inside Russia. Danielle Bell, who heads the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said violations had been documented on both sides of the front line but differed sharply “in scope and scale.” The report attributed 89% of the cases to Russian armed forces, prison officials and security services. The remaining 11% of cases were attributed to Ukrainian authorities, with threats of sexual violence accounting for almost half of them. “I am deeply alarmed by the prevalence of these abhorrent acts documented in our report, and fear that they are almost certainly continuing amid the unceasing violence we are witnessing every day in Ukraine,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said. Electric shocks to detainees Sexual violence was particularly widespread among people held by Russian authorities. Nearly three-quarters of former Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed by UN investigators, as well as almost half of detained civilians, said they had suffered sexual violence more than once. Most of the documented victims were men, particularly those held in detention. Among the most frequently reported methods was the use of a Soviet-era military field telephone known as a “tapik” to administer electric shocks to victims’ genitals. The report said 155 Ukrainian prisoners of war and retained medical personnel had been subjected to the practice at least once. Youngest rape victim aged four Women and children were also subjected to sexual violence, mainly in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The youngest documented rape survivor was a four-year-old girl and the oldest was an 82-year-old woman. Both cases were attributed to Russian authorities. Bell said that unlike Russia, Ukraine has granted UN investigators unrestricted access to prisoner-of-war camps and other detention facilities under its control. The report also said that while the Ukrainian government has taken “concrete steps to prevent and address such violations,” Russia has failed to do the same.
Most of the documented victims were Ukrainian men, particularly those held in detention. (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
