Figures that are closer to reality will begin to emerge when what happened in the places of occupation or where there was active hostilities is dismantled.
Rape reports began to reach the hotlines of specialized public human rights organizations almost from the first days of the war. Law enforcement officers have launched a series of criminal proceedings on the facts of abuse and rape of women and girls in Donetsk, Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts. However, there are few officially confirmed cases among this terrible stream. Not all victims are ready to tell their stories. And even if law enforcement is aware of the rape, they cannot initiate criminal proceedings until the victim has made a statement. Alla Kotlyar, the editor of the Socium department, wrote about this in her article for ZN.UA.
According to international law, there is no statute of limitations for this category of crimes, they are not subject to amnesty. International legal justice states that a well-documented history of a person who has survived sexual violence needs no further confirmation. However, it is very difficult to do this and collect statistics on such crimes while there is active hostilities. Victims are primarily trying to provide for their basic needs and save lives. Especially when it comes to the temporarily occupied territories.
Colonel of the Armed Forces Roman Svitan , who was captured in 2014, tortured and later returned home for an exchange, said the rapes were committed mainly by Russian recruits, ie young people who play hormones: “The level of Russians, their attitude to life is about this – we eat everything, that smells, we drink everything that burns, we fuck everything that moves. And some – and not moving. “
“I know of several such cases. Here's the question. The phones of the Russians who came to us were confiscated so that there was less opportunity to track them in the towers. Young people took the victim's phone and recorded the rape on it.
Such phones were found during the dismantling of Russian corpses. They looked through. But the situation with fixation is not very good. Due to the fact that we have a law on criminal liability for data transfer (photos, videos, etc.), no one wants to shine on it. Suppose a private found a corpse with identification marks, with a phone next to it. I looked at the records, saw this. What can he do about it, where to go? It's scary to leave yourself. This is looting. Give to the military prosecutor? But first – to the military law enforcement service, which must draw up a report, verify. This is a lot of problems for the person who found it. And the private has his own combat mission. And it may be that he did not have to search the corpse at all. So he can either throw this phone away or delete the record.
All this could come to light if Russian recruits start posting records on the Internet or if our hackers start looking for victims' phones (and they are easy to find, especially Apple's) and hacking. I think these videos will be available on the Internet soon, “he explains. . And secondly, how to verify the original record? It is unlikely that such records will be available in court.
Figures closer to reality will begin to emerge when what was in the occupation or where there was active hostilities is being raked up. When examining corpses, experts check for possible rape. This is provided by methodological recommendations. And a certain layer of statistics will give it. But experts and the necessary tools are not enough. And not everywhere it is possible. For example, after a rocket attack you will not find traces. There are also many cases when the occupiers burned corpses. “
Read also: Law enforcement officers have already started investigating cases of rape by the occupiers in 4 oblastsMore about this in the article by Alla Kotlyar “Raped by Russians. How to help instead of “doing good”? “.
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