Over 60 cases of rape documented in Kherson region as committed by Russian soldiers

The relevant statement was made by Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin during his testimony before the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, an Ukrinform correspondent reports, referring to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office.

“In Kherson, like other cities and towns, sexual violence has been used as a political and military tactics by Russian forces. This was done to humiliate and break resistance of civilian population,” Kostin told.

In his words, there is an ongoing investigation into the fact of four-month long forced deprivation of liberty, continued rape and humiliation of a resident of the Kherson region by a Russian serviceman. The perpetrator broke into the victim’s house, stayed there for a prolonged time and, together with rape, threatened the victim and her 9-year-old son with physical violence.

Law enforcement officers are also investigating cases of rape of minors. In particular, one of Russian invaders abducted a minor from the house in the presence of mother and grandmother, and raped the victim.

Russian troops have a tendency to commit sexual harassment, rape and torture against the family members of Ukrainian servicemen.

According to Kostin, another horrible crime committed by Russia is the forced relocation of Ukrainians. On a daily basis, Russian occupation authorities forcibly relocate Ukrainian citizens, including children, from the temporarily occupied areas of the Kherson region to other occupied territories or the Russian Federation.

Kostin emphasized that this is a strategy of separating Ukrainians, especially children, from their parents and families to ensure their faster assimilation into Russian society. For this purpose, Russia has even simplified the procedure of granting Russian citizenship to the Ukrainian children who were forcibly relocated.