NYT: Russian Generals Encourage Their Soldiers to Rape Ukrainian Citizens

Russian commanders are aware of cases of sexual violence perpetrated by their subordinates Ukraineand sometimes encourage their soldiers to behave this way in public, US newspaper The New York Times reported Thursday, citing findings from the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.

After examining 30 cases of sexual violence, I noticed signs that Russian commanders were complicit in such behavior, said British lawyer Wayne Zordash, who advises Ukrainian prosecutors investigating the aggressor’s war crimes, in an interview with “NYT”.

– In practice, it looks like this: the commanders tell the soldiers, for example, “Allow yourself to rest a little.” We also observed a clear pattern in the behavior of forces penetrating an area. Ground troops enter a given city, and then, on the second or third day of the occupation, the rapes begin, said Irina Titenko, head of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office responsible for investigating sex crimes.

The “NYT” report presents several serious cases of Russian crimes in the occupied territories of the neighboring country. The Human Rights Commission’s October report underscored UN Sex crimes against people over 80 years old and children as young as four were recorded by the occupation forces.

More than a dozen cases of gang-rape, forcing family members to witness sexual violence against their loved ones, and rape of detainees by the Russians have been confirmed. “We have initiated 154 criminal cases related to sexual violence, but the actual number of such crimes is much higher,” Ditenko stressed.

– Along with the liberation of adjacent territories of Ukraine from Russian occupation, we observe an increasing number of rapes by the occupier’s troops. Victims of these crimes are of different ages, regardless of gender, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announced in an interview with German and French media in early December.

Reports of rape by Russians in Ukraine have emerged since the start of the Kremlin’s invasion of the neighboring country on February 24. As of mid-December, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office reported that 64 sex crimes had been registered so far in the western part of the Kherson region alone liberated from Russian occupation — more than in all the previously controlled regions. Armies of invaders.