Rapes and sexual attacks attributed to Moscow’s forces in Ukraine are a part of a Russian “navy strategy” and a “planned tactic to dehumanise the sufferers”, UN envoy Pramila Patten instructed AFP in an interview.
“All the symptoms are there,” the UN unique consultant on sexual violence instructed AFP on Thursday, while requested if rape changed into getting used as a weapon of strugglefare in Ukraine.
“When girls are held for days and raped, while you begin to rape little boys and guys, while you see a sequence of genital mutilations, while you pay attention girls testify approximately Russian squaddies ready with Viagra, it is simply a navy strategy,” she stated.
“And while the sufferers file what changed into stated all through the rapes, it’s far simply a planned tactic to dehumanise the sufferers.”
The United Nations has verified “extra than one hundred instances” of rape or sexual attacks in Ukraine on the grounds that Russia invaded in February, Patten stated, regarding a UN file launched in past due September.
The file “showed crimes in opposition to humanity devoted through the Russian forces, and in line with accrued testimonies, the age of the sufferers of sexual violence levels from 4 to 82-years-old,” she stated.
The sufferers are on the whole girls and girls, however additionally guys and boys, she added.
But “said instances are handiest the end of the iceberg,” she added.
“It’s very hard to have dependable facts all through an energetic conflict, and the numbers will in no way replicate reality, due to the fact sexual violence is a silent crime” that is basically underreported, she stated.