Olha, a 31yearold woman, told Human Rights Watch that she was repeatedly raped by a Russian soldier while she was hiding with her family at a school in Kharkiv.
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Among the alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine and reported by the NGO Human Rights Watch are not only summary executions and violence against civilians, but, unfortunately, as in all wars, too episodes of sexual violence. “The cases we have documented represent unspeakable and premeditated cruelty and violence against Ukrainian civilians,” said Hugh Williamson, Human Rights Watch director for Europe and Central Asia, adding that “rape, murder and other acts of violence against people in Russian custody took place Armed forces should be investigated as war crimes. The NGO has collected various testimonies on the ground, which raise serious doubts about the correctness of the work of Moscow’s armed forces in the occupied territories.
One of the cases reported in a Human Rights Watch dossier is that of repeated rape of a 31yearold woman in Malaya Rohana village in the region Kharkiv. The facts date back to March 13th and it was reported by the same victim who called olha. After Russian troops entered the city, about forty people, mostly women and girls, found shelter in the basement of a local school: among others, there were Olha with her 5yearold daughter, her mother, his 13yearold sister and 24 year old brother. “At around midnight on March 13 explains HRW a Russian soldier entered the school: carrying an assault rifle and a pistol, he went into the basement and ordered everyone present to get in line. The 31yearold held her guns. his daughter who was sleeping”.
A few hours later, the soldier forced Olha to follow him to a classroom on the second floor and, after pointing the gun at her, ordered her to undress. “He forced me to give him oral sex and the whole time he kept the gun pointed at my temple. Twice he shot the ceiling and said he did it to give me more ‘motivation’,'” the 31yearold told HRW, explaining that shortly after that he abused her again by stabbing her with a knife held her throat and threatened her. Not only that, she is said to have been repeatedly beaten by the military, as evidenced by some photos the victim attached to his complaint. Russian Federation received Chernihiv and Mariupol regions, but could not independently verify them.