171 sexual crimes by Russian military in Ukraine are under investigation - Zelenska

First Lady Olena Zelenska said this during a panel discussion at a conference in Lviv, Suspilne reports.

“This figure includes not only women - there are 39 men among the victims. 13 are minors, including a boy. We know about these cases only because these people found the strength to speak out. We don't know how many suffer in silence, especially in the occupied territories,” she said.

She also said that many people who suffered because of the violence cannot return to their normal lives.

“Many victims of crimes like rape say that their life was only 'before'. After - existence. When it's scary to remember what happened to you, when it's hard to talk to law enforcement, impossible to talk to your family, and unbearable to get media attention,” the first lady said.

Zelenska also added that rape is still a highly stigmatized crime around the world, and the victim always feels particularly vulnerable and unprotected, completely destroyed.

“The number and openness of rapes of civilian Ukrainians makes us confident that this is a deliberate policy of the Russian army. It is their deliberate psychological and physical weapon against Ukrainians,” she emphasized.

In particular, Olena Zelenska said that abusers and rapists should be punished.

“And I am sure that not only the victims need this, the whole world needs it. That is why my next appeal is to the democratic world. The condemnation of Russian rapes and other Russian crimes is needed as a precedent. So that any potential aggressor, any collective rapist in the world, knows that such things will not go unpunished. And for those who still find something incomprehensible, who hint at concessions to the aggressor, we must liberate our land from the invader not only because we want to return to universally recognized borders. This is a struggle not only for territory and square kilometers, but we must liberate these lands because rapists and looters still reign there in the occupied territories. And as long as they are there, violence continues,” the first lady said.

In turn, Latvian First Lady Andra Levite added that criminals use sexual violence to demonstrate their power and dominance, but in fact it is a characteristic of how intellectually disabled they are.

“Let's use the right terms. There is no special military operation taking place in Ukraine, but there is a war. And the war includes sexual violence and rape. Victims should not be ashamed of what they have gone through. On the other hand, the perpetrators should be really afraid of justice and punishment. Punishment will come soon, I hope,” she emphasized.

In addition, Levite noted that there are visible and invisible consequences of sexual violence, short-term and those that stay with the victim for life.

“The visible consequences of sexual assault and rape include a variety of injuries. The invisible ones include shame, anger, disgust, fear and humiliation. And these are the initial emotional stages. They can be followed by more severe and long-term mental disorders, such as depression, anxiety, panic, suicidal tendencies, aggression, sleep and eating disorders, and unpredictable flashbacks,” she said.

• On January 14, it was reported that the US Permanent Representative to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, called on members of the Organization to read the evidence of rape of Ukrainian women by the Russian military.

• As of February 22, it was known that 68,000 war crimes committed by Russians since February 24, 2022, had been registered in Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of 9,655 people. The real numbers are much higher.