UKRAINE, Apr 24 — Russian military uses sexual violence as a weapon against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine, said Ukraine’s representative to the UN, Serhii Kyslytsia, during a meeting of the UN Security Council on April 23.

According to Serhii Kyslytsia, testimonies from people released from Russian Federation captivity reveal that over 50% of detainees endured torture, rape, or other forms of sexual violence. The Prosecutor General’s Office has documented 290 cases of conflict-related sexual violence, affecting 102 men and 188 women, including 15 minors.

Kyslytsia noted that the facts of sexual violence were also outlined in the reports of the Independent Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). 

The actual number of victims may be higher, Kyslytsia said. According to him, Ukraine, along with the Global Survivors Fund, has launched a pilot project on urgent interim reparation for survivors in Ukraine. “Survivors cannot wait until the war is over”.

In March 2024, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry provided new evidence that Russian authorities have committed violations of international human rights and international humanitarian law in areas that “came under their control” in Ukraine.

In most cases investigated, Russian armed forces confined large groups of Ukrainian prisoners of war as they seized control of various Ukrainian settlements. They transferred and detained them for periods spanning from 9 to 15.5 months in up to seven different locations in the Russian Federation and Ukraine

In several of the facilities investigated, detention conditions were inhuman or degrading. Medical support was mostly denied or inadequate. 

The UN Commission noted that the Ukrainian military also described beatings with various instruments on different parts of the body, electric shocks, inhumane interrogations, threats of rape, unwanted touching during invasive body searches, torture of the genitals.

As a consequence of torture, former prisoners of war reported health problems. Victims developed post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and some attempted suicide

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