This thread is about the report of the UN Independent International Commission about the russian atrocities and violence in Ukraine. It is hell. I focus here only on the cases of rape and violence. Plese STOP russia.
March 2022, the Human Rights Council decided to establish Independent International Commission of Inquiry to investigate all alleged violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law, and related crimes in the context of Russian invasion.
The commission consists of three independent members: Erik Møse (Norway), Jasminka Džumhur (Bosnia and Herzegovina) and Pablo de Greiff (Colombia).
Commission travelled five times to Ukraine and visited 27 cities, towns, and settlements to conduct its inquiry into the events. In preparing the report, the Commission relied on 191 interviews with 110 women and 81 men.
The commission focused on Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy regions and war crimes in late February and in March 2022. THESE ARE ONLY FOUR REGIONS DURING FIVE WEEKS.
They found all kind of atrocities and war crimes you could imagine. We know that the russian army is a bunch of crimes and marauders, but still I am deeply shocked with the details about sexual violence.
Victims range from four to over 80 years old. In most cases, these acts also amount to torture and cruel or inhumane treatment for the victims and for relatives who were forced to watch. Other incidents of sexual violence were also documented against women, men, and girls.
In Kyiv region, in March 2022, two Russian soldiers entered a home, raped a 22-year-old woman several times, committed acts of sexual violence on her husband. Then, one of the soldiers forced their four-year-old daughter to perform oral sex on him.
In another village a Russian armed forces soldier entered the house of a 50-year-old woman. After shooting her husband he took the woman to a nearby empty house where he raped her. Her husband died of his injuries two days later as he could not be taken to the hospital.
A 56-year-old woman explained how two of the three Russian armed forces servicemen who broke into her home gang-raped her as the third one watched while masturbating. She learned a couple of weeks later that her husband had been tortured and executed.
Two cases of rape against women over 80 years old. 83-year-old woman was raped by a Russian armed forces serviceman in her house where her physically disabled husband was also present.
Russian armed forces occupied a home for more than one week. The unit commander repeatedly sexually abused a 16-year-old girl during that time and threatened to kill other family members who tried to protect her.
Chernihiv region, a Russian armed forces serviceman broke into a house, threatened the inhabitants and attempted to rape a woman in front of her three-year-old son. The neighbours, alerted by the noise, ran to the house, while others went to alert his commander.
In Kharkiv region, two cases regarding the repeated rape over a three-month period, of an adolescent girl, allegedly by a Russian armed forces soldier, and the repeated rape reportedly by a Russian armed forces serviceman of a 31-year-old woman.
Some victims refuse to speak. Some have considered suicide. One psychologist working with survivors said: “all victims with whom I am working are blaming themselves for being spotted by perpetrators and being raped”.
The mother of a man executed in the Kyiv region stated: “I still wake up at night, stand in the dark and scream, call for my son, and cry out of pain”.
We all stand in the dark. We all scream. We cry out of pain. The use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas has caused 1,495 deaths. Commission verified the deaths of 112 children, including 36 girls, 62 boys, 14 whose sex could not be determined.
THESE ARE RESULTS OF INVESTIGATION IN FOUR REGIONS DURING FIVE WEEKS. STOP RUSSIA. STOP RUSSIAN ARMY. ARM UKRAINE. And don’t forget about us.
You can find the report here. In English, Ukrainian and Russian.