Russian troops 'gang-raped Ukrainian mum before attacking her daughter, 4'
Many Ukrainians, including a mum and her four-year-old child, have been subjected to unthinkable tortore and sexual abuse, a UN report has said.
The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine heard how Russian soldiers gan- raped the 22-year-old mum in her home in the Kyiv region during the early stages of the invasion back in March.
They then allegedly sexually abused her husband, before making the traumatised couple to have sex in front of them.
One of the soldiers is accused of forcing their four-year-old daughter to perform oral sex on him – which is legally considered to be rape.
On a different occasion, Vladimir Putin’s fighters allegedly raped an 83-year-old woman in front of her physically disabled husband, in a village in the Chernihiv region.
A 56-year-old woman claims two men raped her while a third watched and masturbated in a nearby village in March.
The report says the men stole food and money from her before leaving. She later heard that her husband had been tortured and executed in a separate attack.
In the same region, Russian troops allegedly occupied a house for a week – during which time they are accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a 16-year-old girl.
These are just some of the harrowing testimonies being investigated by the Commission.
Many, if not all, of them show patterns of husbands, partners and family members being threatened or killed for trying to protect their loved ones.
The report stressed: ‘Stigma that continues to surround sexual violence requires patience until victims feel safe and adequately cared for to speak out about what happened.’
One alleged victim said: ‘This experience is very shameful for me and I am extremely scared and intimidated’.
A psychologist who has been working with Ukrainian survivors said: ‘All victims with whom I am working are blaming themselves for being spotted by perpetrators and being raped.’
The Russian military has long been accused of using rape and sexual violence as a weapon of war.
In May, experts told Metro.co.uk how rapes in Ukraine are not ‘randomised, individual, opportunistic acts’ but part of a Russian ‘strategy of terror to instil fear’ instead.
Legally and academically, sexual violence is considered to be a weapon of war when it can be proven there is an intention to use it as a military strategy and when there have been instructions given by the higher-ups in the armed forces.
Vladimir Putin denies his troops are targeting civilians.
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