Ukraine rights group tells top U.N. body that rape used as weapon of war
The United Nations Security Council meets, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, at the U.N. in New York
Mon, April 11, 2022
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United Nations is increasingly hearing accounts of rape and sexual violence in Ukraine, a senior U.N. official told the Security Council on Monday, as a Ukrainian human rights group accused Russian troops of using rape as a weapon of war.
Kateryna Cherepakha, president of La Strada-Ukraine, said her organization's emergency hotlines had received calls accusing Russian soldiers of nine cases of rape, involving 12 women and girls.
"This is just the tip of the iceberg," she told the council via video. "We know and see - and we want you to hear our voices - that violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine."
Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians since its invasion of Ukraine began on Feb. 24.
The United Nations said last week that U.N. human rights monitors were seeking to verify allegations of sexual violence by Russian forces, including gang rape and rapes in front of children, and claims Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias had also committed sexual violence.
Ukraine's U.N. mission did not immediately respond to a request for comment on allegations against Ukraine forces.
"Russia, as we have stated more than once, does not wage war against the civilian population," Russia's deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the Security Council on Monday, accusing Ukraine and allies of "a clear intention to present Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists."
UN Women Executive Director, Sima Bahous, said that all allegations must by independently investigated to ensure justice and accountability.
"We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence," she told the council. "The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags."
All sides in the Ukraine war have systems of conscription, where young men are required by law to do military service. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of using mercenaries.
Russia says it is carrying out a "special military operation" to support independence declarations by separatists in two provinces in eastern Ukraine.
Ukraine's U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya told the Security Council that the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine was "launching a special mechanism of documentation of cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women."
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Mary Milliken and Grant McCool)
Russian troops in Bucha turned to sexual violence against Ukrainian women — killing some and impregnating others — according to reports
A woman witnesses bodies being processed from a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine.
A woman witnesses bodies being processed from a mass grave in Bucha, Ukraine.
Erin Trieb for Insider
Taiyler Simone Mitchell
Mon, April 11, 2022,
The Ukrainian region of Bucha has been host to some of the war's worst atrocities.
Sexual violence against women is "the new weapon" used by Russian troops, a Ukrainian official said.
It's currently "impossible" to gauge how widespread sexual abuse is, the official added.
After Russian troops backed out of Kyiv and the surrounding areas, the world is learning about the damage left behind in the suburb of Bucha, just over an hour's drive to Ukraine's capital, which had been under Russian control.
Bucha has been the scene of some of the war's worst atrocities — largely including sexual violence against the region's civilian women.
A woman clothed only in a fur coat was found with a bullet to the head inside of the basement of a pillaged home, the home's owner told The New York Times.
Volodymyr Shepitko, 66, told the publication his home was overtaken by Russian troops. The woman's body was found near several condom wrappers and a single used one, the outlet reported.
The Ukrainian ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, previously called abuse by Russian soldiers their "new weapon."
She told BBC that a group of "About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha."
"Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn't want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children," she said, adding that nine of them wound up pregnant
Denisova told the outlet that it's currently "impossible" to gauge how widespread the sexual violence against women is in the region because not everyone is willing to speak up about it.
"The majority of them currently call for psychological support, so we cannot record those as crimes unless they give us their testimony," she added.
Taiyler Simone Mitchell
Mon, April 11, 2022,
The Ukrainian region of Bucha has been host to some of the war's worst atrocities.
Sexual violence against women is "the new weapon" used by Russian troops, a Ukrainian official said.
It's currently "impossible" to gauge how widespread sexual abuse is, the official added.
After Russian troops backed out of Kyiv and the surrounding areas, the world is learning about the damage left behind in the suburb of Bucha, just over an hour's drive to Ukraine's capital, which had been under Russian control.
Bucha has been the scene of some of the war's worst atrocities — largely including sexual violence against the region's civilian women.
A woman clothed only in a fur coat was found with a bullet to the head inside of the basement of a pillaged home, the home's owner told The New York Times.
Volodymyr Shepitko, 66, told the publication his home was overtaken by Russian troops. The woman's body was found near several condom wrappers and a single used one, the outlet reported.
The Ukrainian ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova, previously called abuse by Russian soldiers their "new weapon."
She told BBC that a group of "About 25 girls and women aged 14 to 24 were systematically raped during the occupation in the basement of one house in Bucha."
"Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn't want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children," she said, adding that nine of them wound up pregnant
Denisova told the outlet that it's currently "impossible" to gauge how widespread the sexual violence against women is in the region because not everyone is willing to speak up about it.
"The majority of them currently call for psychological support, so we cannot record those as crimes unless they give us their testimony," she added.
UN tells UK to stop matching single Ukrainian women fleeing the invasion with single men, following reports of sexual exploitation
Bill Bostock
Wed, April 13, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) shake hands during their walk in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 9, 2022.Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
The UN says a UK refugee program for Ukrainians must stop pairing single women with single men.
Reports have detailed how some men are trying tried to exploit vulnerable women seeking shelter.
150,000 UK homes signed up to house Ukrainian refugees, but the scheme is beset with delays.
The UN's refugee agency says the UK must stop placing single Ukrainian women fleeing the invasion in the homes of single British men, the Guardian reported.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK government launched the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme, which saw more than 150,000 people offer up rooms in their homes to those fleeing the invasion.
However, several UK media reports have detailed how British men are targeting vulnerable single Ukrainian women arriving in the country, in some cases asking for sexual contact in return for accommodation.
A spokesperson for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees told the Guardian that "a more appropriate matching process" was needed so that single women could be paired with with women or families.
"Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation and violence already experienced," the spokesperson said.
The government's "Homes for Ukraine" system has been heavily criticized domestically, and applicants have been subject to long delays.
Several Ukrainian refugees previously told Insider that they are choosing to return to war-torn Ukraine as they are exhausted by the "hunger and homelessness" inflicted by the long wait for UK visas.
In late March, 16 refugee and anti-trafficking organizations warned that the program was in danger of becoming "Tinder for sex traffickers."
"By adopting a hands-off approach to matching, there is a high risk that traffickers, criminals and unscrupulous landlords set up matching sites and Facebook pages to prey upon the vulnerable," the letter said.
According to a tracker run by the UNHCR, more than 4.6 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on February 24.
Bill Bostock
Wed, April 13, 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson (R) shake hands during their walk in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, April 9, 2022.Ukrainian Presidential Press Office via AP
The UN says a UK refugee program for Ukrainians must stop pairing single women with single men.
Reports have detailed how some men are trying tried to exploit vulnerable women seeking shelter.
150,000 UK homes signed up to house Ukrainian refugees, but the scheme is beset with delays.
The UN's refugee agency says the UK must stop placing single Ukrainian women fleeing the invasion in the homes of single British men, the Guardian reported.
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the UK government launched the "Homes for Ukraine" scheme, which saw more than 150,000 people offer up rooms in their homes to those fleeing the invasion.
However, several UK media reports have detailed how British men are targeting vulnerable single Ukrainian women arriving in the country, in some cases asking for sexual contact in return for accommodation.
A spokesperson for the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees told the Guardian that "a more appropriate matching process" was needed so that single women could be paired with with women or families.
"Matching done without the appropriate oversight may lead to increasing the risks women may face, in addition to the trauma of displacement, family separation and violence already experienced," the spokesperson said.
The government's "Homes for Ukraine" system has been heavily criticized domestically, and applicants have been subject to long delays.
Several Ukrainian refugees previously told Insider that they are choosing to return to war-torn Ukraine as they are exhausted by the "hunger and homelessness" inflicted by the long wait for UK visas.
In late March, 16 refugee and anti-trafficking organizations warned that the program was in danger of becoming "Tinder for sex traffickers."
"By adopting a hands-off approach to matching, there is a high risk that traffickers, criminals and unscrupulous landlords set up matching sites and Facebook pages to prey upon the vulnerable," the letter said.
According to a tracker run by the UNHCR, more than 4.6 million Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia invaded on February 24.
AGAINST OUR WILL; MEN, WOMEN AND RAPE
SUSAN BROWNMILLER
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