Ukraine official explains Russia’s mocking of Ukraine’s achievements on gender issues

The Russian leadership deliberately manipulates and belittles the issue of gender policy in Ukraine.

That’s according to the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy, Kateryna Levchenko, who spoke in an interview with Ukrinform.

"Gender issues are one of the topics off which Russia feeds as part of their hybrid infowar, and today it is not just a hybrid war, it’s a real war against Ukraine. And the deliberate effort to belittle the issue of human rights, the issue of equal rights and opportunities for women and men to the level of physiological needs is a deliberate manipulation on the part of their president, foreign minister, and governors. This is all part of a guidebook aimed to introduce destructive communication into Ukraine and Europe’s public discourse," Levchenko said.

She noted that the Russian leadership's verbal attacks on gender policy first emerged back in 2010, when Russia sought to stop Ukraine's European integration processes at their root.

"So we can expect more nonsense from the Russian president and other politicians as this is a war tool that is employed systematically. We monitor all such statements, of which we have a really long list, and it is then this leads to certain legal repercussions," added the Government Commissioner for Gender Policy.

She also drew attention to the fact that Russia had decriminalized domestic violence back in 2017. While European nations have lone criminalized it, recognizing that domestic violence constitutes crime, Russia chose to refer to it as a “one slap law”, dismissing the phenomenon as something insignificant and thus normalizing it.

"In this way, they legitimized violence that’s been flourishing in Russia, and allowed violence not only against family members, but also against other people. And therefore, violent war crimes Russians commit in Ukraine, including sexual violence, are a continuation of the policy of humiliating human rights and their attitude to violence," emphasized Kateryna Levchenko.

As reported, 77 Russian military personnel have already been sentenced for war crimes committed in Ukraine.