Prosecutor General's Office localizes largest number of sexual crimes by Russian military

The head of the specialized department of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, Iryna Didenko, told Radio Liberty.

According to her, 156 cases of sexual violence by the Russian military have been recorded in Ukraine so far, but this figure is inaccurate because victims often do not report the crime.

“I can only talk about cases where the victim agreed to the opening of a criminal proceeding, having been informed of what awaited them. Often, the family does not know what happened to the victim, victims are very afraid that relatives will find it out. So we record a lot of facts and signals. But out of those who agreed, as of today we can talk about 156 such facts, and the largest number of them were recorded in Kherson – 65 facts, in the Zaporizhzhia region – 6, and the rest – in the Kyiv region,” Didenko said. 

She emphasized that women, men, and even children were victims of the occupying Russian forces. 

Law enforcement officers are managing to identify some of the Russian military involved in committing such crimes, the representative of the Prosecutor General's Office noted.

“Now we can talk about seven notices of suspicion, there are developments and there will be more. We have submitted four indictments to the court. We have one sentence – 12 years in prison. This sentence is a conviction in absentia, that is, without the physical presence of a military officer. We start from the desire of the victim. If this person is ready to go to court, if he or she wants compensation in this form, we go and prove the crime. At the very least, this means that they (convicted Russian military in absentia – ed.) cannot leave Russia,” Didenko emphasized.