Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/9877600
[Warning: The article contains content that may distress some readers.]
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has concluded that Russian forces have committed a variety of war crimes in Ukraine, including sexual and gender-based violence against individuals as young as four and as old as 82.
“We’ve not only pursued searches for evidence directly at known scenes of crimes, but we’ve also been monitoring open sources of information, such as social media channels,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the lead prosecutor for the southern Kherson region, which was controlled by Russian forces for almost nine months until late 2022.
Tracking down people to provide testimony is difficult, as is identifying exactly where the crimes occurred, Kovalenko said.
“Victims were brought there with their faces covered,” he said.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ukrainian authorities are now using some of those accounts to try to put together a case before the International Criminal Court (ICC) that would establish that the use of sexual violence and torture has been systematic, deliberate and, ultimately, directed by the Kremlin.
On March 21, a so-called green corridor opened — a temporary and localized ceasefire allowing civilians to pass from areas with active fighting — and one of Daria’s captors let her go.
Russia has refused to directly address allegations made by the United Nations Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine that it’s used torture and sexual violence against Ukrainian civilians in a way that is widespread and systematic.
“We’ve not only pursued searches for evidence directly at known scenes of crimes, but we’ve also been monitoring open sources of information, such as social media channels,” said Andrii Kovalenko, the lead prosecutor for the southern Kherson region, which was controlled by Russian forces for almost nine months until late 2022.
In particular, he referenced the case of one woman from a village outside of Kherson who reported being repeatedly raped by a Russian soldier while her young daughter listened to her mother’s cries from the next room.
The UN has singled out the secret prison for “egregious violations” of human rights, and Holikov says, while there, he endured torture that included techniques that Ukrainian prosecutors and UN representatives told CBC News constitute a form of sexual violence.
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