The Kiev attorney general Andriy Kostin denounced a “drastic increase” in the use of sexual violence by Russian soldiers as a weapon of war in Ukraine. According to Kostin, interviewed by the German Funke Media Group and by the French Ouest-France, the victims are both women and men. And sexual violence is used as a weapon of war ”to humiliate the Ukrainians”.
In the advances of the Dpa we read that ”in many cases people are raped, tortured and killed by Russian soldiers. Rapes often take place in front of relatives and children”. Kostin explained that Russian commanders often order or at least support the rapes.
“Atrocities against civilians are part of the tactics of warfare against Russian soldiers in Ukraine,” Wenzel Michalski, director of Human Rights Watch’s German office, told Funke Media Group. ”Violent acts that are committed by soldiers, including rape, are not punished by Russia’s political leaders and the army. On the contrary, forces that act with particular brutality are praised, ” he added.
