File photo: Smoke rises following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine (AP Photo)
Of these cases, 89% were attributed to the Russian side, including members of its armed forces, prison service and security agencies, while 11% were linked to Ukrainian authorities, including members of the Ukrainian armed forces, according to Reuters.
The report said Russian authorities committed sexual violence against Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees in occupied areas of Ukraine and inside Russia at various stages of captivity, including during capture, transfer, interrogation and detention. The report also said Russia’s refusal to give the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights access to occupied Ukrainian territory, prisoners of war and civilian detainees meant the actual scale of violations was likely higher. “Sexual violence in conflict is often misunderstood to be mainly affecting women and girls, where in the Ukraine war context, the majority of survivors are men,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, said. OHCHR said it did not document any cases of rape of Russian prisoners of war by Ukrainian forces. The report said Ukraine had taken some steps to prevent such violations and had cooperated with OHCHR requests, although efforts to ensure accountability remained limited.
The report documented a smaller number of cases involving Ukrainian authorities. In Ukrainian government-controlled territory, nearly half of the violations attributed to Ukrainian authorities against Russian and third-country prisoners of war and detainees involved threats of sexual violence and beatings to the genitals. Russian forces committed widespread sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war in Ukraine, including gang rape, genital mutilation and electric shocks to the genitals, while Ukrainian authorities were also responsible for a smaller number of violations, according to a UN human rights report released on Friday.