Rape has increasingly become a tool of oppression for the Russian military ever since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. In recent news reports, United Nations (UN) Envoy Pramila Patten alleged that rapes and sexual assaults by Russian soldiers in Ukraine have become the Kremlin’s "military strategy" and a "deliberate tactic to dehumanise the victims" of the now eight-month-long war.
In an interview with AFP on Thursday, Patten stressed that "All the indications are there," when asked if rape was being used as a weapon of war in Ukraine.
In April, early this year, Ukraine's ombudswoman for human rights, Lyudmyla Denisova said that in Bucha, a suburb of the capital Kyiv, some two dozen women and girls were "systematically raped" by Russian forces.
Women's rights violations since the start of the Ukraine-Russian war
According to a UN study published in late September, the organisation confirmed ‘more than a hundred occurrences’ of rape or sexual assault in Ukraine since Russia invaded the country in February. According to the testimony obtained, the age of the sexual assault victims spans from four to 82 years old, and the investigation ‘proved crimes against humanity committed by the Russian soldiers'.
The victims are mostly women and girls, but also men and boys, she added.
"When women are held for days and raped when you start to rape little boys and men when you see a series of genital mutilations when you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it's clearly a military strategy," said Patten.
Patten, who is also the UN Special Rapporteur on Sexual Violence further added that the "reported cases are only the tip of the iceberg,” stressing that "It's very difficult to have reliable statistics during an active conflict, and the numbers will never reflect reality because sexual violence is a silent crime" that is largely underreported.
UN experts have repeatedly highlighted signs of Russian war crimes including the beating of detainees, electric shocks, executions, and gender-based violence.
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Rape as a political tool
Rape has been considered a natural part of wars until 2008, when t the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 1820, stating that rape and other forms of sexual violence can constitute war crimes, crimes against humanity, or one of the contributing factors when determining whether genocide has been committed.
According to a report by NPR, based on evidence from previous conflicts, the researchers outline how sexual violence affects survivors, what kind of treatment they need and why this kind of violence keeps happening.
Wartime gender-based violence has a variety of motivations. They include punishment, torture, extraction of information and the intent to destroy the morale of the other side.
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The moral of these atrocities always increases in conflict zones with the aim of dissembling crowds and rooting for their displacement.
Wartime rape does not only target women and girls. It might also target boys and men – something the victims are extremely hesitant to report because of societal norms.
However, acts of rape don’t happen because men are individually unable to control their urges.
According to a report by The Conversation, rape as a strategy of war has the effect of undermining the cohesiveness of a community by attacking its very foundation – the women.
