kyiv accuses two Russian soldiers of multiple rapes
Ukraine accuses two Russian soldiers of sexually assaulting a 4-year-old girl and gang-raping her mother at gunpoint and in front of her father, allegations that arise amid widespread suspicion of abuses committed since the invasion of the country by Russia.
According to records from the Ukrainian Public Prosecutor’s Office that Reuters was able to consultthese incidents are part of a series of sexual crimes committed by soldiers of the 15e separate motorized rifle brigade in four houses in Brovary, on the outskirts of kyiv, in March 2022. The shares of this unit have already attracted media attention. The Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The brigade’s phone numbers were out of service. Contacted by Reuters, two officials of the Samara garrison, of which the brigade is a part, said they were unable to give the coordinates of the unit, one of them explaining that they were confidential.
During Moscow’s attempt to take control of Kyiv just after launching its offensive in Ukraine, Russian soldiers entered Brovary, looting and using sexual violence as a deliberate tactic to terrorize the population, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said. “They chose the women in advance and coordinated their actions and roles”added the prosecution, whose documents are based on interviews with witnesses and victims.
Most of the atrocities committed occurred on March 13, when soldiers, “intoxicated, burst into the courtyard of the house where a young family lived”, according to the prosecution. The father was beaten with a metal pot and then forced to kneel while his wife was gang-raped. One of the soldiers told the 4-year-old girl that he “would make her a woman” before she was abused, according to the document. These victims survived, but prosecutors said they are investigating other crimes in the area, including murders, that occurred around the same time.
The Kremlin, which says it is fighting in Ukraine “neo-Nazis” backed by the West, has repeatedly denied allegations of war crimes. He also claims that the military command is not aware of any sexual violence committed by its troops. The soldiers implicated are two snipers, aged 28 and 32, according to the documents of the prosecution, which adds that the oldest has since died, while the youngest, identified as Yevgueni Chernoknijni Andrïovitch, returned to Russia.
Reuters asked for the identity of the two soldiers but the prosecution only provided the name of the younger. When Reuters telephoned a number on an online database by that name, a person identifying himself as Yevgeny Chernoknijni Andrïovitch’s brother said he was dead. ” He is dead. There’s no way to find him.”the man said, crying. ” That’s all I can say. » Reuters was unable to confirm this statement.
The two snipers are among six suspects charged with carrying out the assaults in Brovary. According to the prosecution, this is one of the largest investigations into sexual abuse since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. After the alleged attack on the little girl and her parents, the two soldiers entered the neighboring house of an elderly couple, who they beat, prosecutors said, and also raped a 41-year-old pregnant woman and her 17-year-old daughter. In another place where several families lived, soldiers forced everyone into the kitchen and gang-raped a 15-year-old girl and her mother, prosecutors said.
All the victims, who survived, receive medical care and psychological assistance, he explains. An investigation is ongoing into the possible role senior officers may have played in the assaults at Brovary, prosecutors said as the case fuels growing allegations of the systematic use of sexual abuse by Russian soldiers. Ukraine’s attorney general’s office says it is investigating more than 71,000 war crimes reports since the Russian invasion.