Mystery customer who watched Toronto police kill renowned gunsmith during raid files $2.6M lawsuit


CBC
Tue, September 26, 2023 

Rodger Kotanko, 70, was killed in his gunsmith workshop in Norfolk County in 2021. (Submitted by Jeffrey Kotanko - image credit)

When Toronto police raided the workshop of renowned gunsmith Rodger Kotanko in November 2021 and shot him to death, questions swirled.

But while some details have since emerged, a few questions have remained: who was the lone customer inside the workshop during the raid that day in rural southern Ontario? And, what does that witness say happened?

A recently filed $2.6 million lawsuit sheds some light on that mystery.

A statement of claim filed in London Superior Court by a man using the initials C.W., says both Toronto police and Kotanko put him in an unnecessarily dangerous situation and have traumatized him for life.

Kevin Egan, the man's lawyer, told CBC Hamilton his client is using the initials because of all the media attention the case has received and speculation he was a police informant or undercover officer.

The lawsuit names five "John Doe" officers, as well as Insp. Norman Proctor, Chief James Ramer and the Toronto Police Services (TPS) Board for their involvement in the raid.

TPS and the board both declined to comment on the lawsuit and the claims within it. Mike Smitiuch, the Kotanko family's lawyer, told CBC Hamilton the lawsuit focuses on Toronto police and bolsters the family's position.

Kotanko's family is also suing Toronto police for $23 million over the deadly raid, while the TPS board is standing its ground, saying Kotanko didn't keep track of his guns, didn't store them properly and illegally sold them.

None of the claims have been tested in court, but the Special Investigations Unit (SIU), Ontario's police watchdog, published a report which found "no reasonable grounds to believe" the officer who shot Kotanko broke the law. It also noted the customer and police both said Kotanko didn't obey officers' commands before being shot.

Police never warned customer about raid, claim states

The statement of claim says C.W. had bought a pistol, but had issues with the gun jamming.

Someone told him to call Kotanko and he first met the gunsmith in October, 2021.

Kotanko owned D.A.R.K. International Trading Co. Inc., which imports guns and gun parts, and R.K. Custom Guns, which offers gunsmithing and gun deactivation.

He operated out of his gunsmithing workshop on Port Ryerse Road in Norfolk County, right next to his home, and was licensed. People who knew him say he was renowned for his work.

On Nov. 2, the man set up another appointment with Kotanko and they agreed to meet the next day.

Rodger Kotanko's home on Port Ryerse Road sits left to his workshop where he gunsmiths. His family's lawyer, Michael Smitiuch, said Kotanko did work for local police. the military and international clients.

Kotanko's home on Port Ryerse Road sits next to his workshop. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)

The man states he was waiting in his vehicle outside of Kotanko's home and gunsmithing workshop for over an hour. Kotanko and his wife were reportedly out shopping.

Before Kotanko returned from shopping, police arrived in unmarked vehicles according to the SIU's report — but the man states officers never approached him or warned him about the impending raid.

"The police had an opportunity to approach him on the road or in the driveway … to help him not be involved," Egan said.

The door into gunsmith Rodger Kotanko's workshop is closed off due to an SIU investigation. He died after a Toronto police raid on Nov. 3.

The door into Kotanko's workshop was reportedly open before police raided the building on Nov. 3, 2021. (Bobby Hristova/CBC)

Search warrant documents previously obtained by CBC News show police raided Kotanko's property to investigate why two guns with obliterated serial numbers registered to Kotanko were found at a crime scene in Toronto and another in North Bay, Ont. They allege he illegally removed those serial numbers and sold the firearms, but Kotanko's family denies this.

In his statement of claim, the customer says he planned on leaving his gun with Kotanko and returning later, but Kotanko convinced him to stay, saying the repair wouldn't take long.

The man stayed and entered the workshop with Kotanko — a small, seemingly inconsequential decision at the time, one that has now changed his life forever, he says.

The raid

Kotanko started fixing the disassembled gun and the door to the workshop was left open, according to the claim.

That's when the man says officers burst through the doorway, without warning.

Officers shouted and ordered the man and Kotanko to raise their hands, according to the claim.

The man says he did, but Kotanko wouldn't put his hands up, prompting officers to shoot him four times.

Surveillance footage appears to show police officers approach Rodger Kotanko's home and gunsmithing shop. He was shot dead that day.

Surveillance footage appears to show police officers approach Kotanko's home and gunsmithing shop. (Smitiuch Injury Law/YouTube)

"The best way to describe it is excessive. They killed a man right in front of my client and I think any of us would be shocked to see something like that," Egan said.

"The police had an opportunity to negotiate a surrender or do something else than to burst in guns blazing."

The man say he was "manually pulled and forced" face down, with his hands cuffed behind his back.

The claim says he was "visibly shaking uncontrollably."

'An innocent bystander'

The man is suing police for a "misuse of power ... reckless indifference … and [for killing] Kotanko when there was no need to do so," the claim states.

Egan said Kotanko's family is also being sued because of the gunsmith's actions.

"He invites my client into a building in which that criminal activity appears to be centered and exposes him to danger," Egan said.

Smitiuch, the Kotanko family's lawyer, denied claims Kotanko was involved in illegal activity in the past and says the customer's lawsuit is suing Kotanko's family as an alternative.

"The emphasis in that lawsuit is clearly on the Toronto police and action or inaction they took, allowing customer to get in the workshop and in that situation," Smitiuch said.

"The allegations in the customer's claim bolster our position that Rodger was working on an inoperable gun and attempting to fix it. It also reinforces the position of the family that police completely botched this raid and many steps they could've taken to avoid bloodshed."

Egan said his client is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, nightmares and deep abdominal pain.

The claim says the man has lost income since the shooting and has had to undergo continued mental health treatment.

"He's triggered every time I try to talk to him about it … he saw a man get blown up by police, feet away from him, and then the police turned on him and threatened him with being shot dead as well," Egan said.

"He's just an innocent bystander who ended up … facing a threat of being shot to death."

 Trump Rant About 'Batty' Whales And Windmills Leaves Critics In Stitches

Josephine Harvey
Tue, September 26, 2023 

Donald Trump’s on the warpath against his mortal enemy again, and it made a big splash on social media.

The former president raged during a campaign speech in South Carolina that “windmills” are driving whales “crazy.”

“Windmills are causing whales to die in numbers never seen before. Nobody does anything about that,” he declared.

“They’re driving the whales, I think, a little batty,” he said.

Trump’s had a yearslong vendetta against wind turbines, ever since a lengthy and unsuccessful legal battle to stop Scottish officials from building what he called a “really ugly wind farm” in view of his Aberdeen golf resort.

The whales tidbit is just the latest in a long list of complaints he’s had about the renewable energy generators, including false claims that they cause cancer and kill “all the birds.”

As absurd as it sounds, Trump’s not the first person to make some version of the whales claim, despite a lack of evidence.

Fox News and Republican lawmakers have repeatedly suggested that a spate of whale deaths off the East Coast earlier this year were linked to the early stages of development of offshore wind farms, a claim promulgated by climate deniers with ties to the fossil fuel industry.

Some environmental groups have also raised concerns about how the development and construction of wind farms could impact whales. However, the environmental community has pointed to the absence of any evidence suggesting there’s a link between the projects and whale deaths, and stressed the importance of renewable energy to combat climate change ― the greatest threat to marine life.

On its website, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says there are no known links between large whale mortalities and offshore wind surveys.

“At this point, there is no scientific evidence that noise resulting from offshore wind site characterization surveys could cause mortality of whales,” the agency said.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management also said it had found no evidence, noting: “Past and current research show that vessel strikes and entanglements in fishing gear continue to pose a dangerous, life-threatening risk to whales.”

Users of X, formerly Twitter, were swimming in scorn over Trump’s fishy claim:

DRONE HUMOUR
Video shows Ukraine's 'hornet' drones following Russia's tanks and plopping grenades on top of them

Matthew Loh
Tue, September 26, 2023 

The tanks can be seen peppered by grenades from the air.Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

• Ukraine published a video showing its drones dropping grenades on Russian tanks on open roads.

• The drones followed the vehicles for a short distance, before dropping the explosives on the tanks.

• Ukraine has been ramping up unconventional uses of drones to attack Russian targets.

Ukraine's military released a video on Wednesday of its drones harassing Russian tanks with grenades.

The drones, which a video caption called the "Hornets of Dovbush," were seen dropping the grenades on the Russian armor after tailing the vehicles on an open road.

When one of the tanks slows to a stop, a drone catches up and drops its payload.

The tanks, at least one of which appears to be an advanced T90 model, do not seem to try to move out of the way, and it's unclear if the crews inside were aware of the drones directly above them.

In one of the clips, the attacked tank begins accelerating and then reversing after the impact of the grenade.

The drones are named after Oleksy Dovbush, an eastern European outlaw who lived in the early 18th century and is now a folk hero likened to Robin Hood in Ukraine.

"The 'Hornets of Dovbush' painfully 'sting enemy tanks,'" Ukraine's Armed Forces wrote.

The Ukraine war has increasingly seen the use of drones on the battlefield, including small commercial drones taped with artillery shells.

On its part, Russia has been relying on Iranian Shahed drones, using some as explosives that fly into their targets and self-destruct.

Ukrainian resistance fighters say Russian officers who hadn't been paid by Moscow sold them key intel on the Black Sea Fleet. Missiles then tore through the headquarters.

Jake Epstein
Updated Tue, September 26, 2023 

A satellite image of smoke billowing from a Russian Black Sea Navy HQ after a missile strike in Sevastopol, Crimea, on Friday.

PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via REUTERS

Russian officers leaked sensitive intel on the Black Sea Fleet to Ukrainian partisans, per Ukrainian media.


A resistance group told the Kyiv Post the officers hadn't received salary payments from Moscow.


Ukraine later targeted the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters in a huge missile strike last week.

After missing their anticipated salary payments, Russian officers leaked sensitive information about Moscow's Black Sea Fleet to a Ukrainian partisan movement, Ukrainian media reported, revealing the intelligence later paved the way for a devastating missile strike on the fleet's headquarters in the occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Ukrainian resistance fighters told the Kyiv Post in a recent interview that they managed to gather information about high-ranking Russian commanders from officers who were frustrated by Moscow's failure to pay their salaries on time. They said the officers were financially compensated in exchange for the information, which was then passed along to state agencies and reportedly used to plan last week's attack on the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters.

"Delays in payments alone do not force the military armed forces of the Russian Federation to go against the Russian authorities," a spokesperson for the partisan movement of Ukrainians and Tatars in Crimea, known as ATESH, told the Kyiv Post, which disclosed details of the arrangement in a Monday report. "But the financial reward only helps them to decide on cooperation with the ATESH movement, it serves as an additional incentive," the spokesperson added.

Kyiv's forces on Friday bombarded the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters in Sevastopol, on the southwestern edge of Crimea, with several Western-made cruise missiles, with visual evidence indicating they were Storm Shadow missiles. Videos and photographs of the attack showed the moment one of the missiles slammed into the building, as well as the major structural damage that the facility suffered as a result.



The Ukrainian military later said it timed the strike to coincide with a meeting of Russia's naval leadership. On Monday, Kyiv's Special Operations Forces said 34 people were killed — including Adm. Viktor Sokolov, the commander of the Black Sea Fleet — and another 105 were injured. Insider was unable to immediately and independently confirm the claims.

It's not clear how much money was offered to the Russian officers, nor are the identities of these officers known. ATESH said it had access to activities of the Black Sea Fleet's leadership, though. The group said information was passed to state agencies such as the Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, and the Ukrainian Main Directorate of Intelligence, known as the HUR — the latter of which told the Kyiv Post it had worked with partisans to help target Russian positions around Crimea.

"The Russian military is well aware of the existence of the partisan movement and throw all their forces and means to suppress it and identify our agents," the ATESH spokesperson said. "The growing resistance among the Crimeans confuses them very much."

A satellite image of smoke billowing from a Russian Black Sea Navy HQ after a missile strike in Sevastopol, Crimea, on Friday.

PLANET LABS PBC/Handout via REUTERS

The strike on the Black Sea Fleet's headquarters marked the latest in a string of Ukrainian attacks during the past few weeks targeting high-value Russian positions and assets around Crimea, which Kyiv has vowed to liberate from nearly a decade under Russian occupation.

These incursions include the destruction of multiple S-400 air-defense systems, attacks on an air base and a command post belonging to the Black Sea Fleet, and a massive missile strike on a shipyard in Sevastopol. Western intelligence said the assault damaged two ships while also delivering a long-term blow to Moscow's maritime logistics and operations, and Ukraine's military said dozens of Russian sailors were killed.

"Crimea will definitely be demilitarized and liberated," Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, wrote on social media after the Friday strikes on the headquarters. "Merchant ships will return to the Black Sea. And the Russian warships will eventually take their rightful place, turning into an iconic underwater museum for divers that will attract tourists from all over the world. To a free Ukrainian Crimea."

Nova Scotia gets failing grade in poverty reduction, report says


CBC
Tue, September 26, 2023


Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada, says food bank visits are way up across Canada, which is an early indicator that poverty levels are rising. (CBC - image credit)

Nova Scotia is failing people who are living in poverty, according to a new report from Food Banks Canada.

The report gives a letter grade in 13 indicators of poverty for each Canadian province, plus an overall letter grade.

Nova Scotia received the lowest possible overall grade, F, and it was the only province to score so low.

"It really is a result of a lack of action, a stagnation around any sort of policy advancements to address poverty, to address food insecurity," said Food Banks Canada CEO Kirstin Beardsley.

"When you have a failing grade, you can take some measurable action and see that grade come up. So my message [to Nova Scotia] would be there's a lot of room for improvement."

The report notes that Nova Scotia last wrote a poverty reduction strategy in 2009 and has not updated it since.

Homeless tent encampment Victoria Park and Grand Parade central Halifax.

The report calls Nova Scotia's work on homelessness "unclear and insufficient." (Robert Short/CBC)

Beardsley said the report is a call to action for the federal, provincial and territorial governments to step up and meet the needs of its most vulnerable citizens.

Poverty rates dropped across Canada between the last two census years. Between 2015 and 2020, the national poverty rate went down 6.4 per cent, while the rate in Nova Scotia went down 7.8 per cent. But Beardsley said that doesn't paint an accurate picture of what's happening now.

'We need action now'

She said food bank visits have recently "skyrocketed," which is a canary in the coal mine.

"We see people at the door of a food bank before they show up in federal statistics," Beardsley said.

"We need action now so that people aren't having to go to a food bank to make ends meet."

Food Banks Canada, which is a national non-profit affiliated with Feed Nova Scotia, based its report on data collected from a national survey, coupled with Statistics Canada data on poverty rates.

According to the report, more than half of Nova Scotians feel worse off compared to last year and almost a quarter are experiencing food insecurity.

Nova Scotia's report card from Food Banks Canada on poverty reduction.

Nova Scotia's report card from Food Banks Canada on poverty reduction. (Food Banks Canada)

The report authors call out the Nova Scotia government for "unclear and insufficient" efforts to help people who are homeless and increase the supply of affordable housing.

This year's provincial budget, they said, falls short, with no increase to income assistance rates.

Some gains

The authors said Nova Scotia made some gains this year, including increasing the minimum wage, extending the rent cap and increasing the Nova Scotia Child Benefit.

But overall, the province "failed to take substantive steps this year to meaningfully address poverty," the report said.

The food bank at Mount Saint Vincent University is called the Wellness Pantry and is part of the student union's Wellness Centre.

Food Banks Canada says this new report is part of an effort to reduce food bank use by addressing its root causes. (David Burke/CBC)

Recommendations

Food Banks Canada concluded with seven policy recommendations for the province:

Introduce a new poverty reduction strategy, focusing in particular on poverty among seniors.


Improve community-based health care for seniors.


Remove co-payments for provincial pharmacare programs.


Introduce tax indexation, indexing income brackets to inflation.


Increase and amend the poverty reduction strategy.


Reduce the "claw-backs" of the Nova Scotia affordable living tax credit.


Expand broadband infrastructure.

United Farm Workers endorses Biden, says he's an 'authentic champion' for workers and their families

The Canadian Press
Tue, September 26, 2023 



WASHINGTON (AP) — The United Farm Workers on Tuesday announced its endorsement of President Joe Biden for reelection, saying that the Democrat has proven throughout his life to be an “authentic champion” for workers and their families, regardless of race or national origin.

The farm workers' union was co-founded by Cesar Chavez, the late grandfather of Julie Chavez Rodriguez, who Biden named as his 2024 campaign manager. Her father, Arturo Rodriquez, is a past UFW president.

Julie Rodriguez and “special guests” were expected to formally announce the endorsement later Tuesday at Muranaka Farms in the city of Moorpark in southern California.

“Throughout his life, President Biden has been an authentic champion for workers and their families, regardless of their race or national origin," UFW President Teresa Romero said in a written statement. “The United Farm Workers has seen first hand the positive impact that President Biden has made in the economic standing, labor rights, and daily lives of farmer workers across America.”

The UFW endorsement came as Biden on Tuesday flew to the Detroit area to join a picket line with United Auto Workers members who are on strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.

The farm workers’ union endorsed Biden in 2020 over Republican President Donald Trump, who leads the field of GOP candidates vying for the party's 2024 presidential nomination and the chance to challenge Biden.

Julie Rodriguez said in a written statement that the UFW's organizing has always been about fighting injustice and supporting working people, values that she said are at stake in the election.

“Some of my most cherished conversations with President Biden have been about the legacy of my grandfather and the organizing power of the UFW, because Joe Biden is a real fighter for workers, for Latinos, and for every human's dignity,” said Chavez Rodriguez. She was a top White House adviser to Biden before he named her as campaign manager earlier this year.

The union said it will organize, train and dispatch skilled organizers and Spanish-speaking members to key states, including Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Michigan and Georgia, as it did in 2020.

Darlene Superville, The Associated Press

WAR IS RAPE
Russian troops raped women as old as 83 while their families were forced to listen

Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert
Mon, September 25, 2023 

Russian troops raped women as old as 83 while their families were forced to listen


A new UN report found that women in Ukraine experience systematic sexual violence by Russian troops.


Women as old as 83 have been raped while their families were forced to listen to the brutal attacks.


International criminal law considers rape and sexual violence war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags into its 19th month, international watchdogs say they have found continued evidence of systemic sexual violence against women in regions occupied by invading troops.

The United Nations' Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine released a report Monday detailing the findings of investigators who verified reports of war crimes after multiple evidence-gathering trips to occupied Ukraine.

"The Commission has found that in the Kherson region, Russian soldiers raped and committed sexual violence against women of ages ranging from 19 to 83 years, often together with threats or commission of other violations," the latest UN report reads. "Frequently, family members were kept in an adjacent room, thereby forced to hear the violations taking place."

Representatives for Ukraine's Ministry of Defense, the Government of the Russian Federation, and the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

Insider previously reported on the case of a woman who recounted being raped by Russian soldiers who killed her husband. The woman ushered her crying 4-year-old son to the next room before the attack, but his cries so angered her attackers that they threatened, with a gun to her head, to "show him his mother's brains spread around the house," she said in an interview with The Times of London.

"We have reports of women being gang-raped. These women are usually the ones who are unable to get out. We are talking about senior citizens," Lesia Vasylenko, a member of Ukraine's parliament, said early last year, not long after the invasion began. "Most of these women have either been executed after the crime of rape or they have taken their own lives."

Ukrainian and Polish women attend 'Rape Is a War Crime' protest in front of the Consulate General of Russia in Krakow, Poland.Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Since Vasylenko's comments last March, reports of widespread sexual violence perpetrated by Russian troops, at times encouraged by commanding officers, have increased, prompting international investigations into the incidents. Major protests have occurred in England and Poland against the atrocities, which have targeted civilians in occupied regions, including Kherson and Bucha.

Though women of all ages are the most frequent targets of sexual violence, Russians use rape as a "deliberate tactic" to dehumanize victims regardless of sex, Insider previously reported.

"When women are held for days and raped, when you start to rape little boys and men, when you see a series of genital mutilations, when you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it's clearly a military strategy," Pramila Patten, the UN's special representative on sexual violence in conflict, told AFP, per France 24.
Rape as a weapon of war

While the reports of the rapes are no doubt troubling, sexual violence is frequently documented during wartime. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court classifies rape and sexual violence, including sexual slavery, forced prostitution, and sterilization, as a type of war crime and a crime against humanity, depending on the context under which the crimes are committed.

"Rape committed during war is often intended to terrorize the population, break up families, destroy communities, and, in some instances, change the ethnic make-up of the next generation," reads a 2014 UN report on sexual violence during war, which highlighted sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide.

Between 100,000 and 250,000 women were raped over three months in 1994, according to the report. At least 200,000 women were raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1998, and hundreds of thousands more during wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and the former Yugoslavia, it said.

"Sometimes it is also used to deliberately infect women with HIV or render women from the targeted community incapable of bearing children," the 2014 report adds.

Although international law provides protections against rape and sexual violence, enforcement of the provisions is weak, according to a report by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonpartisan think tank. The International Crime Court has launched an investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine, though legal action is unlikely to come for many years — if it comes at all.

"International law is largely ineffective at preventing rape and sexual violence in conflict," according to the Council on Foreign Relations, which advocates for a pragmatic approach to helping survivors, rather than focusing on the near-impossible task of ending sexual violence during wartime. "Survivor-centered training and aid is the best way to support victims of sexual violence and to help them cope with the trauma, stigma, and the health consequences stemming from conflict-related sexual violence."

Russia tortured some Ukrainian victims to death, UN inquiry says

Reuters
Mon, September 25, 2023 

GENEVA, Sept 25 (Reuters) - Russia's torture methods in parts of Ukraine it occupied have been so brutal that it tortured some of its victims to death, the head of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said on Monday.

Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva his team had "collected further evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian armed forces in areas under their control has been widespread and systematic".

"In some cases, torture was inflicted with such brutality that it caused the death of the victim," he said.

Møse's commission visited parts of Ukraine formerly held by Russian forces such as in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. It found that torture was committed mainly in detention centres operated by the Russian authorities.

The commission has previously said that violations committed by Russian forces in Ukraine, including the use of torture, may constitute crimes against humanity.

Russia denies committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine. Russia was given an opportunity to respond to the allegations at the council hearing but no Russian representative attended. (Reporting by Emma Farge Editing by Peter Graff)

‘I just want justice’: Ukrainians struggle with hidden war crime of sexual violence

Thousands of adults and children may have survived Russian sexual assaults but few have come forward and far fewer have seen any punishment

Liz Cookman

Tue 26 Sep 2023 



When Russian forces occupied Halyna’s village near Bucha, she tried to keep a low profile. She stayed indoors and, when the food ran out, survived off leftover chicken feed scavenged from her garden at night. Yet two young soldiers came to the door, accusing her of hiding Ukrainian troops. They stripped her naked and raped her.

Halyna, 61, who did not want to use her full name, reported her case to Ukrainian police shortly after Russian troops retreated from the Kyiv region in spring last year. Fifteen months on, she has had no update on her case and is struggling to move on.


Ukrainian women more vulnerable to sexual violence after Russian invasion, says IRC

Maryna survived sexual violence while in prison in Russian-occupied Donetsk, where she was detained for her pro-Ukrainian stance. Her identity has been concealed as her husband – a civilian – is still being held there. Released last year, she filed an official report together with a large group of other detainees. It was not taken on, and she was not told why, but is preparing to file a new case as an individual.


“Sexual violence is low attention,” she said. “It’s not treated the same as torture or other war crimes because there is no proper mechanism, no laws.”

Halyna and Maryna are two of what activists believe could be thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of women, children and men who have been subjected to sexual violence – a war crime under international humanitarian law – since Russia’s invaded Ukraine last year. They are among the few so far, however, to have come forward to report what happened to them.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general has recorded more than 97,000 reports of alleged war crimes committed by the invading forces. They include torture, summary killing and the targeting of civilian infrastructure. Yet, as of August, it was investigating just 208 cases of sexual violence.

While Ukraine is making efforts to record and prosecute war crimes, the figures show that sexual violence remains a hidden crime. Rape has been used as a weapon of war in conflicts worldwide, but holding people to account for it is rare. It is difficult to find the perpetrators and to prove there were orders by someone in command.

In Ukraine, survivors face a long road to justice. An overwhelmed legal system, social stigma, a lack of awareness about what constitutes sexual violence and the need for legislative reform could all prevent people from coming forward.

“People live in small communities and they want to keep what happened to them inside the family,” said Halyna. “Some people, including police officers, pass the blame. They say: ‘Well, you decided to stay [under occupation], if you had left this wouldn’t have happened’. It frustrates people and they don’t encourage others to report.”


Kateryna Pavlichenko, the deputy minister of internal affairs, coordinates the work of police units investigating conflict-related sexual violence. She said the brutality and intensity of the full-scale war presented police with challenges they had not faced before, and they have had to adapt quickly.

“It’s been a learning process,” she said. “We have documented instances of sexual violence since 2014 [when Russia-controlled forces seized Crimea], but after the invasion, the scale of crimes spiralled. We have gained experience now and when the counteroffensive liberates new areas we will be more efficient.”

The majority of sexual violence reported so far took place under occupation, in areas such as the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions and Kherson. Police have no access to areas still under Russian control, so they can only wait for Ukraine to make military advances.

In the meantime, Pavlichenko said, they had established eight specialist working groups, made up mostly of women, who tour previously liberated areas to encourage survivors to come forward. Investigators undergo training in how to handle cases sensitively, while a hotline and a website to report cases have been set up.

Ukraine is trying to push through changes on a legislative level that would grant survivors of sexual violence special status and make them eligible for state financial support, something that could encourage people to report crimes in the future.

The country’s criminal code does not outline conflict-based sexual violence, which is separate from other forms of sexual violence and abuse under international law. That means survivors do not receive the same legal status as victims of other types of war crimes, such as unlawful detention, property loss or torture, which come with state financial support.

Uliana Tokarieva, the deputy minister of social policy, said the Verkhovna Rada parliament was processing a law to grant this special status, as well as a number of bylaws that outline conflict-related sexual violence. The adjustments will make way for the provision of social, medical and psychological services and will better punish offenders.

Officials and international groups, such as the UN, have called Russia’s use of sexual violence in Ukraine a strategic programme of dehumanisation. Horrific accounts already shared publicly have spanned the elderly, children as young as four, civilian detainees and military prisoners of war. While women bear the brunt of sexual violence, around a third of cases recorded both by Ukraine’s prosecutor general and anecdotally by UNFPA, the UN’s sexual and reproductive health agency, were against men.

“Men can be subjected to extra social stigma. They don’t want to be seen as a victim or as weak, so few are ready to speak publicly,” said Volodomyr Shvherbachenko, the head of the East-Ukrainian Centre for Civil Initiatives (EUCCI), an NGO that documents conflict-related human rights violations.

Shvherbachenko, who has been documenting sexual violence since 2014, was the first to take a case from Ukraine to the international criminal court. He said reported crimes have included gang rape, the rape of parents in front of children and vice versa, the placing of cameras in the toilets of detention facilities, and sexualised torture, such as the electrocution of genitals and castration.

“Several survivors reported that, after they were abused, they were told: ‘You will not be able to have children now’, or: ‘We’re doing this to stop Ukrainians from reproducing’,” said Shvherbachenko. “These acts ruin people’s lives.”

Ukraine and UNFPA have recently launched an awareness campaign to encourage people who may have been subjected to lesser-known examples of war-related sexual violence to come forward. These include the threat of rape, the witnessing of sexual violence against others, being stripped naked, a gun being pointed at reproductive organs and any act with a sexual undercurrent.

“People might not consider what happened to them sexual violence until they have had help processing what happened,” said Alona Sychova, a psychologist at UNFPA’s Zaporizhzhia Survivor Relief Centres, one of 11 across the country.

Those who do not get help risk severe psychological effects, such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The slow path to justice can also have profound mental health effects.

Pavlichenko’s office said 71 of the 208 cases of sexual violence, involving 81 survivors, were undergoing criminal proceedings. In some cases, the perpetrator had been identified but could not be found, and in others, they had already been killed on the battlefield. That can be disappointing for survivors.

“People go to law enforcement, report a case and expect judgment right away, and punishment for those who harmed them,” said Sychova. “But if it takes a long time, or the case doesn’t go forward as expected – it leads to added frustration and anxiety.” Some may choose not to take the case as far as court due to the trauma of giving repeated detailed testimony.

For Halyna and Maryna, justice would allow them to move on, to feel confident that Ukraine is a democratic state that serves their needs, and to regain a sense of certainty in their lives. “I just want to get justice, I want everyone to be punished,” said Maryna. “It would help me recover psychologically.”

New ‘supercontinent’ could wipe out humans and make Earth uninhabitable, study suggests

Amy Woodyatt, CNN
Tue, September 26, 2023 

The formation of a new “supercontinent” could wipe out humans and all other mammals still alive in 250 million years, researchers have predicted.

Using the first-ever supercomputer climate models of the distant future, scientists from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom predicted how climate extremes would intensify after the world’s continents merge to form one supercontinent, Pangea Ultima, in around 250 million years.

They found it would be extremely hot, dry and virtually uninhabitable for humans and mammals, who are not evolved to cope with prolonged exposure to excessive heat.

Researchers simulated temperature, wind, rain and humidity trends for the supercontinent and used models of tectonic plate movement, ocean chemistry and biology to calculate carbon dioxide levels.

They found that not only would the formation of Pangea Ultima lead to more regular volcanic eruptions, spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and warming the planet, but the sun would also become brighter, emitting more energy and warming the Earth further, experts noted in the paper, published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience.

“The newly-emerged supercontinent would effectively create a triple whammy comprising the continentality effect, hotter sun and more CO2 in the atmosphere,” Alexander Farnsworth, senior research associate at the University of Bristol and lead author of the paper, said in a release Monday.

“Widespread temperatures of between 40 to 50 degrees Celsius (104 to 122 degrees Fahrenheit) and even greater daily extremes, compounded by high levels of humidity would ultimately seal our fate. Humans – along with many other species – would expire due to their inability to shed this heat through sweat, cooling their bodies,” Farnsworth added.

The increased heat, Farnsworth noted, would create an environment without food or water sources for mammals.

This image shows the geography of today's Earth and the projected geography of Earth in 250 million years, when all the continents converge into one supercontinent - University of Bristol

While there are large uncertainties when making predictions so far into the future, the scientists said that the picture appears “very bleak,” with only around 8% to 16% of land on the supercontinent habitable for mammals.

Carbon dioxide could be double current levels, according to the report, although that calculation was made on the assumption that humans stop burning fossil fuels now, “otherwise we will see those numbers much, much sooner,” Benjamin Mills, a professor of Earth system evolution at the University of Leeds and a report co-author, said in the release.

This grim outlook is no excuse for complacency when it comes to tackling today’s climate crisis, the report authors warned. Human-caused climate change is already resulting in millions of deaths around the world every year.

“It is vitally important not to lose sight of our current climate crisis, which is a result of human emissions of greenhouse gases,” co-author Eunice Lo, research fellow in climate change and health at the University of Bristol, said in the release.

“While we are predicting an uninhabitable planet in 250 million years, today we are already experiencing extreme heat that is detrimental to human health. This is why it is crucial to reach net-zero emissions as soon as possible,” Lo added.

Climate change is on course to transform life on Earth, with billions of people and other species due to reach points where they can no longer adapt unless global warming is dramatically slowed, according to a major UN-backed report published last year.

Scientists have warned for decades warming needs to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with the window to cut our reliance on fossil fuels and avoid catastrophic changes that would transform life as we know it rapidly closing.

The last mass extinction occurred some 66 million years ago, when an asteroid slammed into Earth and killed off the dinosaurs and most life on the planet.

CNN’s Angela Fritz, Rachel Ramirez and Laura Paddison contributed reporting.