UN report documents over 30 cases of sexual violence against Ukrainian POWs by Russian servicemen

Russian servicemen used sexual violence as a form of torture and ill-treatment on at least 15 POWs and 12 civilians, according to a report released on Wednesday by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The report stated that the men in question had “suffered instances of rape, electric shocks and beatings to genitals and buttocks, forced nudity and beatings while naked, unjustified cavity searches, homophobic slurs, threats of castration, and threats of rape against the detainee or their loved ones”.

The OHCHR also documented six cases of summary executions of Ukrainian POWs, including two captured on videos that appeared online on 6 March and 11 April 2023. The first video showed Russian servicemen shooting dead a Ukrainian POW after he said “Glory to Ukraine”, while the second captured a Russian serviceman beheading a Ukrainian serviceman.

Furthermore, Ukrainian POWs were forced to carry heavy loads of ammunition and supplies to Russian frontline positions and to retrieve wounded Russian combatants, while exposed to mines and shelling without protection or body armour.

In late August, UNICEF released a report stating that over 1,300 Ukrainian schools had been destroyed since the start of the war.