'Abhorrent acts' - Russian forces committed widespread sexual violence in Ukraine since full-scale invasion, UN reports

Key Points:

• A UN report released on September 18 states that Russian forces are responsible for 89% of verified cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine since February 2022, with Ukrainian forces accounting for 11%.
• The report, based on survivor interviews and official records, highlights a pattern of sexual violence by Russian forces against civilians and POWs, including men, women, and children, with victims ranging from a 4-year-old girl to an 82-year-old woman.
• Documented abuses include rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks to genitals, and other degrading acts, with Russian forces using methods such as electrocution with tasers or military field telephones as torture against Ukrainian POWs.
• UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk called for an immediate end to sexual violence and urged Russia to take concrete steps to protect civilians and prisoners of war from such abuses.
• The report acknowledges underreporting and limited access to occupied Ukrainian territories, suggesting the actual scale of sexual violence may be higher than documented.