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Ukrainian investigators have uncovered more evidence of sexual crimes committed by Russian soldiers, including forcing a minor to perform oral sex, according to a report.
In the United Nations’ report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, investigators said two Russian soldiers entered a home in Kyiv in March 2022. The soldiers then committed acts of sexual violence on a 22-year-old woman and her husband, forced the couple to have sexual intercourse while they were watching and forced their four-year-old daughter to perform oral sex on one of the soldiers. Investigators classified the incident as a crime of rape.
In addition, the Commission is investigating three other similar allegations of Russian soldiers raping women and teenage girls in the same village.
The UN report also detailed more than a dozen cases involving gang rape as well as family members being forced to watch a relative while they were being sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers.
Investigators said they found sexual assault victims in Ukraine to be between four and 80 years old.
“The Commission investigated cases of rape committed by some soldiers of the Russian armed forces,” the UN report read. “Victims ranged from 4 to over 80 years old. Perpetrators raped the women and girls in their homes or took them and raped them in unoccupied dwellings.”
Russian officials have repeatedly denied allegations of human rights abuses in Ukraine. Maria Zakharova, the spokesman for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, recently dismissed a report by the UN Human Rights Commission as “rumors and gossip.”
However, officials and experts have found evidence that Russian commanders knew or even condoned rape. Wayne Jordash, a British lawyer advising Ukrainian prosecutors, told The New York Times that he saw “signs of acquiescence” by commanders among 30 cases he had reviewed.
As of Dec. 31, Ukraine was investigating over 58,000 potential war crimes committed by the Russian army, including killings, kidnappings, indiscriminate bombings and sexual assault. At least 632 incidents of war crimes have been independently verified by The Associated Press and “Frontline” since the conflict began last year, as per a public database.
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