І. Sexual violence as Russia’s weapon in the war against Ukraine: History and the present
On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an open military attack on Ukraine. The Russian troops invaded Ukraine near Kharkiv, Kherson, Chernihiv, and Sumy. As early as the beginning of March 2022, Russian troops occupied several population centres in the Kyiv region, including the town of Bucha. The world became acutely aware of the horrifying atrocities and war crimes committed in Bucha following the liberation by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. On 2 April 2022, the first video recordings of mass killings of civilians in the town of Bucha, Kyiv region, were published. In less than a month of occupation, more than 400 people were tortured and killed by the Russians. The bodies were found with signs of sexual violence. In addition, law enforcement agencies and human rights public organisations recorded numerous cases of sexual violence by Russian military personnel.
As of early December 2023, the law enforcement agencies recorded 257 cases of conflict-related sexual violence (hereinafter ‘CRSV’), which affected 96 men, 161 women, and 14 children. The age of the victims varies from four to 80 years old. As we can see, the Russian servicemen do not care about the age or the gender of victims of their sexual violence. This type of crime is just one of the tools used by the Russian military to wage war. When committing crimes of rape, forced nudity, sexualized torture, or forcing parents to watch the rape of their children, and children to watch the rape of their parents, they say that it is the punishment for the pro-Ukrainian position or for the fact that someone from their family serves in the Armed Forces, or they do it intending to cause significant harm to reproductive health to prevent childbirth, etc.