Ukraine records 171 cases of sexual abuse by Russian military

To date, 171 cases of sexual violence committed by Russian occupants against citizens of Ukraine have been registered in Ukraine, with minors and men among the victims, Olena Zelenska said at the United for Justice conference in Lviv.

It is not only women - among the victims there are 39 men. 13 of them are minors, including a boy. We know about these cases only because these people found the strength to speak. We do not know how many suffer in silence, especially in the occupied territories," the first lady of Ukraine said.

Zelenska stressed that the number and unconcealedness of rapes of Ukrainian civilians shows that these crimes are a conscious policy of the Russian army.

This is their conscious psychological and physical weapon against Ukrainians," she stressed.

According to the First Lady, many rape victims say their lives have been divided into before and after - what happened after the crime can only be called existence, while some victims prefer to keep silent to avoid recalling traumatic events.

In Kherson region, a 62-year-old woman was repeatedly raped at gunpoint by a Russian military officer, in Kyiv region a mother and a girl were raped, her father was beaten and forced to watch. Another family in Kyiv region - a mother, daughter and granddaughter - were raped for a fortnight. Sviatogorsk - a woman by three Russian military officers. All victims are now working with psychologists - Zelenska told about several cases.

Zelenska stressed that every perpetrator of sex crimes must be punished, not only the victims, but also the entire world, which needs to understand that such violence will never go unpunished.