Russian Forces Responsible for 89 Percent of Rapes and Sexualized Violence in Course of Putin’s War in Ukraine, UN Monitoring Mission Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Sept. 19 – Between February 24, 2022 and July 31, 2025, Russian forces fighting in Ukraine were responsible for 892 of the 1004 cases of rape and sexualized violence there – some 89 percent of the total -- according to the UN Monitoring Mission, which concedes that its figures are incomplete.

            The victims have been overwhelmingly male, the mission says, with 725 of the 892 cases of sexualized violence committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian men likely serving in the Ukrainian army. There may have been many more because Russian officials refused to cooperate with the UN body (novayagazeta.eu/articles/2026/09/19/oon-rf-otvetstvenna-za-89-zafiksirovannykh-sluchaev-seksualizirovannogo-nasiliia-vo-vremia-voiny-news).

            While undboutedly incomplete and certain to be denounced by Moscow because it found that Ukrainian troops were responsible for only 11 percent of such crimes, it is the most comprehensive one so far, based on confidential interviews “with hundreds of those who have suffered, the materials of court cases, and official records.”