Law enforcers initiated 43 criminal proceedings regarding sexual crimes committed by Russian army

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Kateryna Pavlichenko informed about this during the briefing.

She noted that in individual proceedings there may be several episodes, victims or even criminals.

"There have already been 43 criminal proceedings on the facts of sexual crimes. However, I want to say about these 43 cases that there may be - and some of them do have - several episodes, several victims or even several criminals in one of these proceedings," Pavlichenko emphasized.

She added that among the recorded crimes there are facts of gang rapes and rapes of minors.  The most cases of sexual violence were discovered in the Kyiv region - 15 cases of rape committed by Russians were recorded.  All this was entered into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations.

"I will not name the settlements where these sexual crimes were established in order not to disclose information. Also, these facts were established in the Chernihiv region - there are at least 3 victims there," Pavlichenko said.

The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs also noted that there are also victims of such crimes in the Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson regions.  Currently, special police groups are working in the de-occupied territories of these regions.

"We understand that this is only the tip of the iceberg, it will be quite difficult to find out all the number of these crimes committed by the Russians," she emphasized.

Pavlichenko noted that during peacetime, only 30% of victims reported sexual crimes. During the war, they are reported even less. She added that the Ministry of Internal Affairs currently guides victims of violence to receive comprehensive assistance and rehabilitation.

On October 18, the UN International Commission revealed a number of war crimes committed by Russian forces in Ukraine.