A United Nations report released Friday has documented nearly 900 cases of sexual violence committed by Russian forces against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war since the invasion began in February 2022. The report, compiled by the Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, describes widespread and systematic abuses, including rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, and the use of electric shocks and beatings on victims.
Among the 892 individuals identified, 725 were men and 151 were women, including children as young as four and elderly victims up to the age of 82. The report details horrific acts such as electric shocks administered to women's breasts, forced nudity followed by physical assault, and forced observation of sexual violence against others. At least 46 women and girls, including 10 minors, reported being raped by Russian military personnel, some resulting in children born of rape.
The report highlights cases where detainees experienced sexual violence repeatedly. Approximately 75% of former prisoners of war and nearly half of Ukrainian civilians held captive by Russian forces reported multiple sexual assaults. Ukrainian medical personnel were also targeted during captivity and interrogations.
Particularly brutal methods documented include the use of a Soviet-era military field telephone, known as a "tapik," to administer electric shocks to the genitals of at least 155 men. Other survivors described being sodomized with a police baton, penetrated with cell door keys, or assaulted with the handle of a shovel.
The report criticizes Russia for failing to take effective measures to prevent, investigate, or prosecute sexual violence committed by its military and security personnel. Instead, it notes that Russian legal provisions provide broad impunity for such crimes. According to the UN, Russian forces are responsible for 89% of reported sex crimes during the conflict, compared to 11% attributed to Ukrainian forces.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk expressed deep alarm at the scale of the abuses and emphasized that sexual violence remains a grave feature of the ongoing conflict. “It must stop immediately, irrespective of the perpetrators,” Türk said, urging Russia to take concrete steps to protect civilians and prisoners of war from torture and sexual violence.
Survivors’ testimonies included accounts from Viktoria Martsyniuk, a 42-year-old mother near Kyiv, who described being raped by a Russian soldier, with her neighbor subjected to gang rape and forced to witness her husband’s execution. Many of the alleged perpetrators have not faced accountability for these crimes, according to the report.
The findings underscore the widespread nature of sexual violence in the war in Ukraine, exposing a pattern of deliberate and systematic abuse by Russian military and security forces throughout detention and interrogation processes.