Kyllä tästä tulee mieleen, että UA luovutti Severodonetskin suhteen. Pussituksen vaara liian suuri kun joen yli ei saa kalustoa. Mutta voi olla, että varsinainen puolustuslinja on lännempänä "kaupunkigeometrisistä" syistä. Pitäisin todella yllättävänä mikäli tästä ei taisteltaisi ankarasti. Kaupunkisodassa kun puolustaja saa vielä käännettyä itselleen lisää etua.
Ukrainan konflikti/sota
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
Parabellum
Alikersantti
Juurikin näin, Lipponen ja Ahtisaari oli ja on niitä hyvin harvoja demareita joilla on aina ollut käsitys Venäjän vaarallisuudesta ja sitä myötä järkevä Natokanta, valitettavasti vasemmanlaidan demarit jyräsivät järjen äänen.
Tässä vuodelta 2003 https://www.mtvuutiset.fi/artikkeli/lipposen-nato-linja-ei-kelpaa-demarieliitille/1992476
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
Valtakunnansyyttäjänvirasto ilmoitti saaneensa päätökseen ensimmäisen virallisen raiskausta koskevan rikostutkinnan venäläistä sotilasta vastaan Ukrainan sodan aikana.
Tutkinnan mukaan syytetty ja toinen sotilas murtautuivat maaliskuussa Brovaryn alueella sijaitsevassa kylässä olevaan omakotitaloon ja ampuivat talon omistaneen miehen sekä raiskasivat toistuvasti tämän vaimon. Päihtyneet sotilaat uhkailivat naista ja hänen alaikäistä lastaan aseellisesti väkivallalla.
Tapaus etenee oikeuteen. Kyseessä on ensimmäisen venäläinen sotilas, jota syytetään raiskauksesta oikeudessa Ukrainan sodan aikana.
Asiasta kertoi Ukrainan valtakunnansyyttäjä Iryna Venediktova Facebookissa. Syytetty on Venediktovan mukaan Vitebsko-Novgorod-divisioonan sotilas.
Sotilasta syytetään poissaolevana, sillä hän ei ole ukrainalaisviranomaisten hallussa.
"Vaikka syytetty ei ole tällä hetkellä meidän käsissämme, hän ei pakene oikeudenmukaista oikeudenkäyntiä ja vastuuvelvollisuutta lain edessä", Venediktova kirjoitti.
Brittilehti The Times julkaisi maaliskuun lopussa raiskauksen kohteeksi joutuneen naisen haastattelun. Nainen kertoi lehdelle joutuneensa kahden juopuneen venäläissotilaan raiskaamaksi kahdesti 9. maaliskuuta kodissaan pienessä kylässä Kiovan koillispuolella.
Naisen mukaan sotilaat olivat ennen raiskauksia ampuneet hänen miehensä syyttäen miestä natsiksi.
Lehden mukaan naisen nelivuotias poika itki viereisessä pannuhuoneessa, kun hänen äitinsä raiskattiin. Äiti ja poika onnistuivat pakenemaan, kun sotilaat nukahtivat tuoleille perheen kodissa, The Times kertoi naisen kertoneen.
Venäjän presidentin Vladimir Putinin tiedottaja Dmitri Peskov tyrmäsi ukrainalaissyyttäjän esittämän väitteen kyseisestä raiskaustapauksesta. ”Me emme usko siihen lainkaan, se on valhetta”, hän sanoi The New York Times -lehden mukaan.
Ukrainalaisviranomaisten mukaan venäläisjoukot ovat syyllistyneet useiden ihmisten raiskauksiin Ukrainassa käytävän hyökkäyssodan aikana. Myös ihmisoikeusjärjestöt ovat nostaneet esille huolen seksuaalirikosten uhreista Ukrainan sodassa.
Pauliina Grönholm, toimittaja
Tutkinnan mukaan syytetty ja toinen sotilas murtautuivat maaliskuussa Brovaryn alueella sijaitsevassa kylässä olevaan omakotitaloon ja ampuivat talon omistaneen miehen sekä raiskasivat toistuvasti tämän vaimon. Päihtyneet sotilaat uhkailivat naista ja hänen alaikäistä lastaan aseellisesti väkivallalla.
Tapaus etenee oikeuteen. Kyseessä on ensimmäisen venäläinen sotilas, jota syytetään raiskauksesta oikeudessa Ukrainan sodan aikana.
Asiasta kertoi Ukrainan valtakunnansyyttäjä Iryna Venediktova Facebookissa. Syytetty on Venediktovan mukaan Vitebsko-Novgorod-divisioonan sotilas.
Sotilasta syytetään poissaolevana, sillä hän ei ole ukrainalaisviranomaisten hallussa.
"Vaikka syytetty ei ole tällä hetkellä meidän käsissämme, hän ei pakene oikeudenmukaista oikeudenkäyntiä ja vastuuvelvollisuutta lain edessä", Venediktova kirjoitti.
Brittilehti The Times julkaisi maaliskuun lopussa raiskauksen kohteeksi joutuneen naisen haastattelun. Nainen kertoi lehdelle joutuneensa kahden juopuneen venäläissotilaan raiskaamaksi kahdesti 9. maaliskuuta kodissaan pienessä kylässä Kiovan koillispuolella.
Naisen mukaan sotilaat olivat ennen raiskauksia ampuneet hänen miehensä syyttäen miestä natsiksi.
Lehden mukaan naisen nelivuotias poika itki viereisessä pannuhuoneessa, kun hänen äitinsä raiskattiin. Äiti ja poika onnistuivat pakenemaan, kun sotilaat nukahtivat tuoleille perheen kodissa, The Times kertoi naisen kertoneen.
Venäjän presidentin Vladimir Putinin tiedottaja Dmitri Peskov tyrmäsi ukrainalaissyyttäjän esittämän väitteen kyseisestä raiskaustapauksesta. ”Me emme usko siihen lainkaan, se on valhetta”, hän sanoi The New York Times -lehden mukaan.
Ukrainalaisviranomaisten mukaan venäläisjoukot ovat syyllistyneet useiden ihmisten raiskauksiin Ukrainassa käytävän hyökkäyssodan aikana. Myös ihmisoikeusjärjestöt ovat nostaneet esille huolen seksuaalirikosten uhreista Ukrainan sodassa.
Pauliina Grönholm, toimittaja
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
Men and boys are among the alleged victims of rape by Russian soldiers in Ukraine, where dozens of cases of sexual violence by the invading forces are already under investigation, UN and Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday.
“I have received reports, not yet verified … about sexual violence cases against men and boys in Ukraine,” said Pramila Patten, UN special representative on sexual violence in war, at a press conference in Kyiv.
Patten added that it can be particularly challenging for male rape survivors to report the crime. “It’s hard for women and girls to report [rape] because of stigma amongst other reasons, but it’s often even harder for men and boys to report … we have to create that safe space for all victims to report cases of sexual violence.”
She warned that dozens of cases of sexual violence that are under investigation so far “only represent the tip of the iceberg”, as she urged survivors to come forward, and the international community to find perpetrators and hold them responsible. “Today’s documentation will be tomorrow’s prosecution,” she said.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said on Tuesday that her office had collected reports of sexual violence by Russian troops against men and women of all ages, from children to elderly people.
Speaking at a news conference in the shattered Kyiv suburb of Irpin, one of a cluster of small towns whose names have become synonymous with Russian war crimes, Venediktova said Moscow had used rape as a deliberate strategy. “This is, of course, to scare civil society … to do everything to [force Ukraine to] capitulate.”
There have been few public accounts of sexual violence in Ukraine. Some victims have left the country, and others who have stayed are frightened of speaking about their experience, Venediktova said.
However, teams of prosecutors and investigators have been gathering evidence of widespread sexual violence since Russian forces retreated just over a month ago.
Gang-rapes, assaults at gunpoint, and rapes committed in front of children are among the grim testimonies they have collected from victims and their families.
Evidence some Ukrainian women raped before being killed, say doctors
Read more
The country’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova, has officially documented the cases of 25 women who were kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha, which neighbours Irpin.
Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on women buried in mass graves say they have also found evidence some were raped before being killed by Russian forces.
UN envoy Patten said she was visiting Kyiv because of the overwhelming indications of widespread, systematic sexual violence in the conflict, and the risk to Ukrainian women from trafficking if they try to flee the conflict.
“All the warning signals are flashing red in Ukraine, with allegations of brutal sexual violence emerging,” she said, at a press conference with Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Olga Stefanishina.
“I could not stay back in my office in New York, in the face of such harrowing reports of sexual violence. I’m here because we must spare no effort to ensure zero tolerance and consistent consequences for these crimes,” Patten said.
While the fighting has ended around Kyiv for now, Russian soldiers still hold swathes of territory in the south and east of the country. Amid growing concern about rape there too, activists are trying to get emergency contraception into Ukrainian hospitals as quickly as possible.
Patten warned that for too long, the world had allowed sexual violence to be deployed as a cheap, silent and effective weapon against whole communities.
“Cheap, because it is cost free. Very effective, because it does not only affect the victim, it affects whole families, the communities,” she said. “It is biological warfare. It is psychological warfare.”
She said the UN would work with Ukrainian authorities to provide support for survivors, but is also investigating crimes to prepare cases for criminal trial.
Rush to get emergency contraception into Ukraine as reports of rape rise
Read more
Ukrainian investigators have already identified Russian soldiers they allege are responsible for war crimes including sexual violence, and an arrest warrant has been issued for one man accused of rape.
There has been international support for investigations, with French and Dutch forensic experts already on the ground. Britain has also promised to send investigators to help gather evidence of war crimes, including sexual violence.
But many question whether soldiers who have already retreated will face prosecution, as they are under the protection of the government in Moscow which ordered the invasion and denies
“I have received reports, not yet verified … about sexual violence cases against men and boys in Ukraine,” said Pramila Patten, UN special representative on sexual violence in war, at a press conference in Kyiv.
Patten added that it can be particularly challenging for male rape survivors to report the crime. “It’s hard for women and girls to report [rape] because of stigma amongst other reasons, but it’s often even harder for men and boys to report … we have to create that safe space for all victims to report cases of sexual violence.”
She warned that dozens of cases of sexual violence that are under investigation so far “only represent the tip of the iceberg”, as she urged survivors to come forward, and the international community to find perpetrators and hold them responsible. “Today’s documentation will be tomorrow’s prosecution,” she said.
Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said on Tuesday that her office had collected reports of sexual violence by Russian troops against men and women of all ages, from children to elderly people.
Speaking at a news conference in the shattered Kyiv suburb of Irpin, one of a cluster of small towns whose names have become synonymous with Russian war crimes, Venediktova said Moscow had used rape as a deliberate strategy. “This is, of course, to scare civil society … to do everything to [force Ukraine to] capitulate.”
There have been few public accounts of sexual violence in Ukraine. Some victims have left the country, and others who have stayed are frightened of speaking about their experience, Venediktova said.
However, teams of prosecutors and investigators have been gathering evidence of widespread sexual violence since Russian forces retreated just over a month ago.
Gang-rapes, assaults at gunpoint, and rapes committed in front of children are among the grim testimonies they have collected from victims and their families.
Evidence some Ukrainian women raped before being killed, say doctors
Read more
The country’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova, has officially documented the cases of 25 women who were kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha, which neighbours Irpin.
Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on women buried in mass graves say they have also found evidence some were raped before being killed by Russian forces.
UN envoy Patten said she was visiting Kyiv because of the overwhelming indications of widespread, systematic sexual violence in the conflict, and the risk to Ukrainian women from trafficking if they try to flee the conflict.
“All the warning signals are flashing red in Ukraine, with allegations of brutal sexual violence emerging,” she said, at a press conference with Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Olga Stefanishina.
“I could not stay back in my office in New York, in the face of such harrowing reports of sexual violence. I’m here because we must spare no effort to ensure zero tolerance and consistent consequences for these crimes,” Patten said.
While the fighting has ended around Kyiv for now, Russian soldiers still hold swathes of territory in the south and east of the country. Amid growing concern about rape there too, activists are trying to get emergency contraception into Ukrainian hospitals as quickly as possible.
Patten warned that for too long, the world had allowed sexual violence to be deployed as a cheap, silent and effective weapon against whole communities.
“Cheap, because it is cost free. Very effective, because it does not only affect the victim, it affects whole families, the communities,” she said. “It is biological warfare. It is psychological warfare.”
She said the UN would work with Ukrainian authorities to provide support for survivors, but is also investigating crimes to prepare cases for criminal trial.
Rush to get emergency contraception into Ukraine as reports of rape rise
Read more
Ukrainian investigators have already identified Russian soldiers they allege are responsible for war crimes including sexual violence, and an arrest warrant has been issued for one man accused of rape.
There has been international support for investigations, with French and Dutch forensic experts already on the ground. Britain has also promised to send investigators to help gather evidence of war crimes, including sexual violence.
But many question whether soldiers who have already retreated will face prosecution, as they are under the protection of the government in Moscow which ordered the invasion and denies
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
This article is more than 1 month old
Forensic specialists carrying out autopsies north of Kyiv say they ‘still have hundreds of bodies to examine’
Forensic experts with bodies of civilians killed in Bucha. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
Lorenzo Tondo and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv
Mon 25 Apr 2022 12.13 BSTLast modified on Tue 26 Apr 2022 09.51 BST
Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces.
“We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death,” said Vladyslav Perovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor who with a team of coroners has carried out dozens of autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka who died during Russia’s month-long occupation of the area.
“We can’t give more details as my colleagues are still collecting the data and we still have hundreds of bodies to examine,” he said.
Perovskyi’s team has been examining about 15 bodies a day, many of them mutilated. “There are many burnt bodies, and heavily disfigured bodies that are just impossible to identify,” he said. “The face could be smashed into pieces, you can’t put it back together, sometimes there’s no head at all.”
Dozens of Bucha civilians were killed by metal darts from Russian artillery
Read more
He said the bodies of some women they had examined showed signs that the victims had been killed by automatic gunfire, with upwards of six bullet holes in their backs.
Oleh Tkalenko, a senior prosecutor for the Kyiv region, said details of alleged rapes had been forwarded to his office, which is investigating circumstances such as locations and the ages of victims.
“Rape cases are a very delicate and sensitive matter,” Tkalenko said. “Forensic doctors have a specific task of checking the genitalia of female victims and looking for signs of rape.”
A foreign coroner working north of Kyiv who asked to remain anonymous said some bodies “are in such bad shape that it is not easy to find signs of rapes and sexual abuses. But we are collecting evidence in a few cases of women we believe had been raped before being murdered.”
Following the withdrawal of Russian troops from towns and suburbs around the capital, dozens of women have told police, the media and human rights organisations about atrocities they say they suffered suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers. Investigators have heard testimony of gang-rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint and rapes committed in front of children.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova, has officially documented the cases of 25 women who were kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv now synonymous with Russian war crimes. Authorities have warned those cases could be the tip of the iceberg and accused Russian troops of using rape as an instrument of war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a statement last week that hundreds of women had been raped by Russian soldiers. Ukrainian authorities have declined to give exact figures or details about where the rapes occurred or the ages of the victims.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during the war even as evidence to the contrary has mounted.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am
Tkalenko said women were reluctant to file police reports about acts of sexual violence because they believed the perpetrators would not be caught. Instead, they were contacting psychologists and doctors for help.
“Psychologists work with the rape victims and then with detectives,” Tkalenko said. “Women are very reserved, and the information on rape cases is more closed.”
Much of the evidence collected by Ukrainian prosecutors will soon be forwarded to the international criminal court (ICC), which has launched an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
One volunteer who travelled into liberated areas north of Kyiv on 1 April to help evacuate residents said they encountered three naked women who emerged from houses and basements. One had been badly beaten and was taken away by ambulance, they said. The volunteer said they also witnessed about 10 other women giving statements to police about being raped.
“What usually happens is that rape victims initially want to tell their story, but then they go away and it isn’t until months later that they come back to talk,” the person said.
Tkalenko says that when prosecutors hear about rape cases they approach victims individually and try to see if they will file a statement. “People are ashamed to talk about rape,” he said.
Evidence some Ukrainian women raped before being killed, say doctors
This article is more than 1 month oldForensic specialists carrying out autopsies north of Kyiv say they ‘still have hundreds of bodies to examine’
- Warning: contains graphic descriptions
- Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates
Forensic experts with bodies of civilians killed in Bucha. Photograph: Alessio Mamo/The Guardian
Lorenzo Tondo and Isobel Koshiw in Kyiv
Mon 25 Apr 2022 12.13 BSTLast modified on Tue 26 Apr 2022 09.51 BST
Forensic doctors carrying out postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves north of Kyiv say they have found evidence some women were raped before being killed by Russian forces.
“We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death,” said Vladyslav Perovskyi, a Ukrainian forensic doctor who with a team of coroners has carried out dozens of autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka who died during Russia’s month-long occupation of the area.
“We can’t give more details as my colleagues are still collecting the data and we still have hundreds of bodies to examine,” he said.
Perovskyi’s team has been examining about 15 bodies a day, many of them mutilated. “There are many burnt bodies, and heavily disfigured bodies that are just impossible to identify,” he said. “The face could be smashed into pieces, you can’t put it back together, sometimes there’s no head at all.”
Dozens of Bucha civilians were killed by metal darts from Russian artillery
Read more
He said the bodies of some women they had examined showed signs that the victims had been killed by automatic gunfire, with upwards of six bullet holes in their backs.
Oleh Tkalenko, a senior prosecutor for the Kyiv region, said details of alleged rapes had been forwarded to his office, which is investigating circumstances such as locations and the ages of victims.
“Rape cases are a very delicate and sensitive matter,” Tkalenko said. “Forensic doctors have a specific task of checking the genitalia of female victims and looking for signs of rape.”
A foreign coroner working north of Kyiv who asked to remain anonymous said some bodies “are in such bad shape that it is not easy to find signs of rapes and sexual abuses. But we are collecting evidence in a few cases of women we believe had been raped before being murdered.”
Following the withdrawal of Russian troops from towns and suburbs around the capital, dozens of women have told police, the media and human rights organisations about atrocities they say they suffered suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers. Investigators have heard testimony of gang-rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint and rapes committed in front of children.
Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova, has officially documented the cases of 25 women who were kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv now synonymous with Russian war crimes. Authorities have warned those cases could be the tip of the iceberg and accused Russian troops of using rape as an instrument of war.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a statement last week that hundreds of women had been raped by Russian soldiers. Ukrainian authorities have declined to give exact figures or details about where the rapes occurred or the ages of the victims.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians during the war even as evidence to the contrary has mounted.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am
Tkalenko said women were reluctant to file police reports about acts of sexual violence because they believed the perpetrators would not be caught. Instead, they were contacting psychologists and doctors for help.
“Psychologists work with the rape victims and then with detectives,” Tkalenko said. “Women are very reserved, and the information on rape cases is more closed.”
Much of the evidence collected by Ukrainian prosecutors will soon be forwarded to the international criminal court (ICC), which has launched an investigation into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
One volunteer who travelled into liberated areas north of Kyiv on 1 April to help evacuate residents said they encountered three naked women who emerged from houses and basements. One had been badly beaten and was taken away by ambulance, they said. The volunteer said they also witnessed about 10 other women giving statements to police about being raped.
“What usually happens is that rape victims initially want to tell their story, but then they go away and it isn’t until months later that they come back to talk,” the person said.
Tkalenko says that when prosecutors hear about rape cases they approach victims individually and try to see if they will file a statement. “People are ashamed to talk about rape,” he said.
Kumpujen yöstä
Kapteeni
Vihaksi taas pistelee kun näitä katselee. Rokan Anttia olisi tuossa tarvittu haudan vyöryttämiseen. Ei ole sota näemmä pahemmin muuttunut. Ihan perinteiset taidot on kunniassa. Ja Suomi Kp. Prrk, pakkohan niitä on vielä jossakin luolastossa olla jemmassa tuhansia. Ja munakäsikranaatteja ja perunanuijia. Lapinleuku löytyy omasta takaa. Saatana.
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
By Tara John, Oleksandra Ochman and Sandi Sidhu, CNN
Updated 0420 GMT (1220 HKT) April 22, 2022
Karina Yershova, right, is pictured with her grandmother in an undated photograph provided by the family.
Lviv, Ukraine (CNN)When Russian troops invaded Ukraine and began closing in on its capital, Kyiv, Andrii Dereko begged his 22-year-old stepdaughter Karina Yershova to leave the suburb where she lived.
But Yershova insisted she wanted to remain in Bucha, telling him: "Don't talk nonsense, everything will be fine -- there will be no war," he said.
With her tattoos and long brown hair, Yershova stood out in a crowd, her stepfather said, adding that despite living with rheumatoid arthritis, she had a fiercely independent spirit: "She herself decided how to live."
Yershova worked at a sushi restaurant in Bucha, and hoped to earn her university degree in the future, Dereko said: "She wanted to develop herself."
Unclaimed and unidentified: Bucha empties its mass graves 03:24
As Russian soldiers surrounded Bucha in early March, Yershova hid in an apartment with two other friends. On one of the last occasions Dereko and his wife, Olena, heard from Yershova, she told them she had left the apartment to get food from a nearby supermarket.
"We did not think that Russians would reach such a point that they would shoot civilians," he said. "We all hoped that at least they would not touch women and children -- but the opposite happened."
When weeks went by without a word from Yershova, the family became desperate for news. Her mother left a message on Facebook begging anyone who knew what had happened to her to get in touch.
She was told by friends that images of a dead woman with similar tattoos to Yershova's -- which included a rose on her forearm -- had been posted on a Telegram group set up by a detective in Bucha who was trying to identify hundreds of bodies found in the town after Russian troops withdrew from the area two weeks ago.
Dereko says the images, seen by CNN, show his stepdaughter's mutilated body. Police told the family she had been killed by Russian soldiers.
It looked like she was tortured or put up a fight, he said. "They mutilated her. They shot her in the leg, and then gave her a tourniquet to stop her bleeding. And then they shot her in the temple."
Dereko also believes Yershova was sexually abused by Russian troops. "The [police] investigator hinted" that she had been raped, he said.
CNN has not been able to independently verify this claim. Officers who oversaw the case declined to comment to CNN due to the ongoing investigation. CNN has reached out to Kyiv prosecutors for comment.
Karina Yershova is seen in a photograph provided by her family.
The Dereko family's agonizing wait for answers reflects the rising anxiety amid reports of wartime rape in the country.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have been sexually abusing women, children and men since the invasion began, using rape and other sexual offenses as weapons of war.
Human rights groups and Ukrainian psychologists who CNN spoke to say they have been working around the clock to deal with a growing number of sexual abuse cases allegedly involving Russian soldiers.
A report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), released on April 13, found violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces in Ukraine, noting that "reports indicate instances of conflict-related gender-based violence, such as rape, sexual violence or sexual harassment."
"Russian soldiers are doing everything they can to show their dominance, and rape is also a tool here," said psychologist Vasylisa Levchenko, who founded a service that provides free counselling for Ukrainians suffering from war-related trauma.
Levchenko says her network, called Psy.For.Peace, has spoken to roughly 50 women from the Kyiv region who say they were sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers. She told CNN the group is dealing with cases including a 15-year-old and her mother who were sexually abused by pro-Russian Chechen soldiers, and the gang rape of another woman by seven soldiers -- while Ukrainian detainees were forced to watch.
CNN has been unable to independently verify the account.
"The weapon [rape] is a demonstration of complete contempt for the [Ukrainian] people," Levchenko said, adding that it is one which has an impact far beyond the victims of individual attacks: "There are people who feel guilty for not being able to do anything, guilty for surviving, for watching a person dying in front of them."
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since the war began -- a claim disproven by numerous attacks that have been verified by CNN and other news organizations. CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
Blood on the stairwell: Inside the brutal occupation of Bucha 03:32
"Rape is an instrument of war against the civilian population -- an instrument of destruction of the Ukrainian nation," she said.
Psychologist Alexandra Kvitko, who works on a hotline for trauma victims run by Ukraine's ombudsman with the support of UNICEF, said she has heard dozens of accounts of conflict-related sexual violence.
"This amount of sexual violence, this kind of brutality has never happened before," she told CNN.
In the five years she has been practicing, Kvitko said she had only dealt with 10 cases of sexual assault before the invasion. "Now, in a few weeks of work I have 50 cases, and these are not only women -- these are children and boys and men," she said.
Rape is being used to break the morale of Ukrainians, she said, "to stop people from resisting."
Kvitko said that when one client ran out into the street to stop soldiers from raping her 19-year-old sister, "a military man came up, grabbed her and said: 'No! Look! Tell everyone that this will happen to every Nazi whore.'"
'Kill them all, for f**k sake': Shocking intercepted audio reveals conversation between Russian soldiers 04:11
Any such act of conflict-related sexual violence -- rape, forced prostitution, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy -- is considered a war crime and a breach of international human rights laws, said Charu Lata Hogg, the founder of human rights organization the All Survivors Project, which researches conflict-related sexual violence against men.
"Whether that is triggered within the context of a patriarchal and militarized masculinity, or whether it is exerted as a specific aim of warfare or whether it happens because people find a population at their mercy and therefore decide to inflict further harm," it is still a war crime, Lata Hogg told CNN.
But even as Ukrainian and international prosecutors from the International Criminal Court (ICC) collect evidence of Russian war crimes, many sexual abuse victims are not yet ready to speak to officials about their ordeal, Levchenko said.
"All our psychologists must provide women with the contacts of the prosecutor's office so that when they are ready, women can seek legal assistance," psychologist Levchenko said, adding that none of her clients has so far reached out to Ukrainian prosecutors.
Levchenko said many of the victims -- women, men and children -- need time to heal before speaking to the authorities.
On Friday Andrii Niebytov, the head of Kyiv's police force, said his officers had only confirmed one suspected rape case so far in the region. "We have [heard] such reports from outsiders, but when we talk to women, they refuse to confirm or deny such information," he said.
A man pushes his bike through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 6, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine.
Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, director of the Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives (EUCCI), told CNN that the country had seen cases of sexual violence being used as a weapon in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists seized territory in the country's east after widespread protests called for closer integration to Europe.
A joint report in 2017 by Justice for Peace in Donbas and other rights groups like EUCCI documented cases on both sides of the conflict, including rape and attempted rape, sexual harassment, and coercion to watch sexual violence against others. "The most widespread form of sexual violence against women was rape," the report added.
'People often cry during their questioning': CNN speaks to woman investigating Russian war crimes 05:18
Lata Hogg, from the All Survivors Project, said that in the past month her group has had multiple accounts of sexual violence, "and the pattern of sexual violence emerging in this context is not dissimilar to those which have been documented in other contexts globally," including during the conflict in Chechnya.
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, was leveled by Russian forces in a brutal war in the 1990s and early 2000s. Human Rights Watch reported at the time that Russian soldiers had raped Chechen women in Russian-held areas.
Psychologist Levchenko worries that the true scale of Russian atrocities will only emerge when areas like Mariupol are liberated.
In occupied cities and towns, Russian forces "regularly visit women's homes, can check their phones, their photos, social networks," making it impossible for women to receive rape kits or other services, Krivulyak from La Strada-Ukraine said.
"This fear of armed people sometimes makes it impossible to ask for help, and this in turn makes it very difficult to document facts, which leads to problems around bringing [perpetrators] to justice," she said.
Beyond the emotional trauma, "there is also a very high risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," which is why medical attention is so important, she said.
Shcherbachenko said EUCCI case workers are helping one local government worker in an occupied area of southern Ukraine who "was specifically raped in order to force her to cooperate."
He said Russian soldiers had told her: "We will rape you again if you don't do what you need to do ... For me, this shows [Russian forces are using] sexual violence as [a] weapon."
Yershova's body was found in a shallow grave in Bucha, alongside those of 65-year-old Natalia Mazokha and her husband, Victor, 64.
CNN pieced together the final moments of their lives.
Neighbors told the Mazokhas' daughter Julia that Russian soldiers had dragged a wounded woman -- believed to be Yershova -- into her parent's yard in the middle of March; Natalia tried to help her.
The soldiers returned two minutes later, when "mom was next to her [and] giving her help, and they [the Russians] shot her, shot my mother," Julia Mazokha said. Her father was killed in the hallway of their home when he tried to find out what was happening.
"They lay in the yard for 10 days, as I understand it," she said. The couple's neighbors called her around March 20 to inform her that her parents had been killed.
Mazhokha said she had begged her parents to leave Bucha with her on March 12. "They didn't want to go to [saying]: 'No, we won't go, we'll be here. Everything will be fine,'" she said.
Karina Yershova is pictured with her grandfather, left and stepfather Andrii Dereko, far right.
Andrii Dereko told CNN this is the second time his family has had to escape a Russian incursion. In 2014, they fled their home in the Donbas region as fighting broke out between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists.
They lost everything -- even family photos -- but had managed to rebuild a new life in Irpin, the neighboring suburb to Bucha. Dereko became a taxi driver and did odd jobs to keep the family afloat.
But now they have been left with nothing again "because of the Russians," he said. "At least the first time I saved my child, this time I couldn't save her."
His wife is so tired she is unable to cry, and all that is left in Dereko is rage.
"Who is to blame?" he asked CNN.
"Is the soldier who abused my child to blame? Or the one who brought him here in a tank? Or maybe the general who ordered the invasion of Ukraine is to blame? Or that stinking [Russian] President Vladimir Putin, who gave the order to mutilate the Ukrainian people?"
"I blame the entire Russian world -- not just its military," he said.
Updated 0420 GMT (1220 HKT) April 22, 2022
Karina Yershova, right, is pictured with her grandmother in an undated photograph provided by the family.
Lviv, Ukraine (CNN)When Russian troops invaded Ukraine and began closing in on its capital, Kyiv, Andrii Dereko begged his 22-year-old stepdaughter Karina Yershova to leave the suburb where she lived.
But Yershova insisted she wanted to remain in Bucha, telling him: "Don't talk nonsense, everything will be fine -- there will be no war," he said.
With her tattoos and long brown hair, Yershova stood out in a crowd, her stepfather said, adding that despite living with rheumatoid arthritis, she had a fiercely independent spirit: "She herself decided how to live."
Yershova worked at a sushi restaurant in Bucha, and hoped to earn her university degree in the future, Dereko said: "She wanted to develop herself."
Unclaimed and unidentified: Bucha empties its mass graves 03:24
As Russian soldiers surrounded Bucha in early March, Yershova hid in an apartment with two other friends. On one of the last occasions Dereko and his wife, Olena, heard from Yershova, she told them she had left the apartment to get food from a nearby supermarket.
"We did not think that Russians would reach such a point that they would shoot civilians," he said. "We all hoped that at least they would not touch women and children -- but the opposite happened."
When weeks went by without a word from Yershova, the family became desperate for news. Her mother left a message on Facebook begging anyone who knew what had happened to her to get in touch.
She was told by friends that images of a dead woman with similar tattoos to Yershova's -- which included a rose on her forearm -- had been posted on a Telegram group set up by a detective in Bucha who was trying to identify hundreds of bodies found in the town after Russian troops withdrew from the area two weeks ago.
Dereko says the images, seen by CNN, show his stepdaughter's mutilated body. Police told the family she had been killed by Russian soldiers.
It looked like she was tortured or put up a fight, he said. "They mutilated her. They shot her in the leg, and then gave her a tourniquet to stop her bleeding. And then they shot her in the temple."
Dereko also believes Yershova was sexually abused by Russian troops. "The [police] investigator hinted" that she had been raped, he said.
CNN has not been able to independently verify this claim. Officers who oversaw the case declined to comment to CNN due to the ongoing investigation. CNN has reached out to Kyiv prosecutors for comment.
Karina Yershova is seen in a photograph provided by her family.
The Dereko family's agonizing wait for answers reflects the rising anxiety amid reports of wartime rape in the country.
Ukrainian officials say Russian forces have been sexually abusing women, children and men since the invasion began, using rape and other sexual offenses as weapons of war.
Human rights groups and Ukrainian psychologists who CNN spoke to say they have been working around the clock to deal with a growing number of sexual abuse cases allegedly involving Russian soldiers.
A report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), released on April 13, found violations of international humanitarian law by Russian forces in Ukraine, noting that "reports indicate instances of conflict-related gender-based violence, such as rape, sexual violence or sexual harassment."
"Russian soldiers are doing everything they can to show their dominance, and rape is also a tool here," said psychologist Vasylisa Levchenko, who founded a service that provides free counselling for Ukrainians suffering from war-related trauma.
Levchenko says her network, called Psy.For.Peace, has spoken to roughly 50 women from the Kyiv region who say they were sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers. She told CNN the group is dealing with cases including a 15-year-old and her mother who were sexually abused by pro-Russian Chechen soldiers, and the gang rape of another woman by seven soldiers -- while Ukrainian detainees were forced to watch.
CNN has been unable to independently verify the account.
"The weapon [rape] is a demonstration of complete contempt for the [Ukrainian] people," Levchenko said, adding that it is one which has an impact far beyond the victims of individual attacks: "There are people who feel guilty for not being able to do anything, guilty for surviving, for watching a person dying in front of them."
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians since the war began -- a claim disproven by numerous attacks that have been verified by CNN and other news organizations. CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Defense for comment.
Breaking morale
Alyona Krivulyak, who heads up a national hotline at La Strada-Ukraine -- a group that campaigns against gender-based violence -- told CNN that the hotline has received nine accounts of rape from around the country, the majority of them gang rapes of women.
Blood on the stairwell: Inside the brutal occupation of Bucha 03:32
"Rape is an instrument of war against the civilian population -- an instrument of destruction of the Ukrainian nation," she said.
Psychologist Alexandra Kvitko, who works on a hotline for trauma victims run by Ukraine's ombudsman with the support of UNICEF, said she has heard dozens of accounts of conflict-related sexual violence.
"This amount of sexual violence, this kind of brutality has never happened before," she told CNN.
In the five years she has been practicing, Kvitko said she had only dealt with 10 cases of sexual assault before the invasion. "Now, in a few weeks of work I have 50 cases, and these are not only women -- these are children and boys and men," she said.
Rape is being used to break the morale of Ukrainians, she said, "to stop people from resisting."
Kvitko said that when one client ran out into the street to stop soldiers from raping her 19-year-old sister, "a military man came up, grabbed her and said: 'No! Look! Tell everyone that this will happen to every Nazi whore.'"
'Kill them all, for f**k sake': Shocking intercepted audio reveals conversation between Russian soldiers 04:11
Any such act of conflict-related sexual violence -- rape, forced prostitution, sexual slavery, forced pregnancy -- is considered a war crime and a breach of international human rights laws, said Charu Lata Hogg, the founder of human rights organization the All Survivors Project, which researches conflict-related sexual violence against men.
"Whether that is triggered within the context of a patriarchal and militarized masculinity, or whether it is exerted as a specific aim of warfare or whether it happens because people find a population at their mercy and therefore decide to inflict further harm," it is still a war crime, Lata Hogg told CNN.
But even as Ukrainian and international prosecutors from the International Criminal Court (ICC) collect evidence of Russian war crimes, many sexual abuse victims are not yet ready to speak to officials about their ordeal, Levchenko said.
"All our psychologists must provide women with the contacts of the prosecutor's office so that when they are ready, women can seek legal assistance," psychologist Levchenko said, adding that none of her clients has so far reached out to Ukrainian prosecutors.
Levchenko said many of the victims -- women, men and children -- need time to heal before speaking to the authorities.
On Friday Andrii Niebytov, the head of Kyiv's police force, said his officers had only confirmed one suspected rape case so far in the region. "We have [heard] such reports from outsiders, but when we talk to women, they refuse to confirm or deny such information," he said.
A man pushes his bike through debris and destroyed Russian military vehicles on a street on April 6, 2022 in Bucha, Ukraine.
Horrific precedent
Reports of sexual violence often rise during times of conflict, and Ukraine has been no exception.Volodymyr Shcherbachenko, director of the Eastern Ukrainian Centre for Civic Initiatives (EUCCI), told CNN that the country had seen cases of sexual violence being used as a weapon in 2014, when Russian-backed separatists seized territory in the country's east after widespread protests called for closer integration to Europe.
A joint report in 2017 by Justice for Peace in Donbas and other rights groups like EUCCI documented cases on both sides of the conflict, including rape and attempted rape, sexual harassment, and coercion to watch sexual violence against others. "The most widespread form of sexual violence against women was rape," the report added.
'People often cry during their questioning': CNN speaks to woman investigating Russian war crimes 05:18
Lata Hogg, from the All Survivors Project, said that in the past month her group has had multiple accounts of sexual violence, "and the pattern of sexual violence emerging in this context is not dissimilar to those which have been documented in other contexts globally," including during the conflict in Chechnya.
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, was leveled by Russian forces in a brutal war in the 1990s and early 2000s. Human Rights Watch reported at the time that Russian soldiers had raped Chechen women in Russian-held areas.
Psychologist Levchenko worries that the true scale of Russian atrocities will only emerge when areas like Mariupol are liberated.
In occupied cities and towns, Russian forces "regularly visit women's homes, can check their phones, their photos, social networks," making it impossible for women to receive rape kits or other services, Krivulyak from La Strada-Ukraine said.
"This fear of armed people sometimes makes it impossible to ask for help, and this in turn makes it very difficult to document facts, which leads to problems around bringing [perpetrators] to justice," she said.
Beyond the emotional trauma, "there is also a very high risk of unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases," which is why medical attention is so important, she said.
Shcherbachenko said EUCCI case workers are helping one local government worker in an occupied area of southern Ukraine who "was specifically raped in order to force her to cooperate."
He said Russian soldiers had told her: "We will rape you again if you don't do what you need to do ... For me, this shows [Russian forces are using] sexual violence as [a] weapon."
'This time I couldn't save her'
Rights groups say victims will shoulder the trauma of sexual abuse for the rest of their lives, while the families of those who died, like Karina Yershova, are left hunting for answers and dealing with the horror of happened to their loved ones.Yershova's body was found in a shallow grave in Bucha, alongside those of 65-year-old Natalia Mazokha and her husband, Victor, 64.
CNN pieced together the final moments of their lives.
Neighbors told the Mazokhas' daughter Julia that Russian soldiers had dragged a wounded woman -- believed to be Yershova -- into her parent's yard in the middle of March; Natalia tried to help her.
The soldiers returned two minutes later, when "mom was next to her [and] giving her help, and they [the Russians] shot her, shot my mother," Julia Mazokha said. Her father was killed in the hallway of their home when he tried to find out what was happening.
"They lay in the yard for 10 days, as I understand it," she said. The couple's neighbors called her around March 20 to inform her that her parents had been killed.
Mazhokha said she had begged her parents to leave Bucha with her on March 12. "They didn't want to go to [saying]: 'No, we won't go, we'll be here. Everything will be fine,'" she said.
Karina Yershova is pictured with her grandfather, left and stepfather Andrii Dereko, far right.
Andrii Dereko told CNN this is the second time his family has had to escape a Russian incursion. In 2014, they fled their home in the Donbas region as fighting broke out between Ukraine and Russia-backed separatists.
They lost everything -- even family photos -- but had managed to rebuild a new life in Irpin, the neighboring suburb to Bucha. Dereko became a taxi driver and did odd jobs to keep the family afloat.
But now they have been left with nothing again "because of the Russians," he said. "At least the first time I saved my child, this time I couldn't save her."
His wife is so tired she is unable to cry, and all that is left in Dereko is rage.
"Who is to blame?" he asked CNN.
"Is the soldier who abused my child to blame? Or the one who brought him here in a tank? Or maybe the general who ordered the invasion of Ukraine is to blame? Or that stinking [Russian] President Vladimir Putin, who gave the order to mutilate the Ukrainian people?"
"I blame the entire Russian world -- not just its military," he said.
Kumpujen yöstä
Kapteeni
Sopimussotilaat saisi lähteä kotimatkalle oikosääristen pataljoonaan.
Korpijääkäri
Kapteeni
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
Oletus on (vahvana) siihen suuntaan, että UA:n saama tiedusteluapu merkittävästi operaatiopainopisteisiin vaikuttaa. Taistelukentän(kenttien) reaaliaikainen riittävän tarkka hahmottaminen suhteessa vastustajaan saattaa yllättäviäkin tuloksia tuoda. Etuna tiedostavammalle puolelle.Tämä on se Ukrainan tänään vapauttama Mykolaivka. Noita on useita tuolla lähekkäin, lähin vain 10km päässä. Näissä menee helposti harhaan. Tämmöisiä ollut aiemmin mm. Oleksandrivka.
Mykolaivista 5km (edit) itään on Vysokopillya, jossa muistaakseni on ryssän FOB tai muu vahvistus.
Ukraina hyökkää lisäksi etelämpänä Davydiv Bridin alueella ja vielä etelämpänä Snihuvrikan alueella.
Tämä voi olla huikea juttu mutta vielä ei pidä iloita. Potentiaalisesti ryssä pussitetaan tuonne Dnipron länsirannalle. Voi olla paniikki päällä, huoltolinja on aika pitkä Hersonin suunnasta.
Miksi hyökkäys kolmessa paikassa? Miksi ei yhtä hyvin vahvaa painopistettä? Toistaako Ukraina ryssien virheitä? Voi olla että vain yksi hyökkäys on se "oikea", muut ovat tunnustelua tai hämäystä.
Google Maps
Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.www.google.com
Varsinkin, jos ja kun Venäjän joukkojen johtojärjestelmän puutteet vaikuttaisivat edelleen olevan tasolla, jolla kriittistä merkitystä on.
Putinxyjlo
Eversti
Ihan ehtaa propagandaa, tiktok soturi ja näyttelijät.Tässä pidempi versio tuosta. Liekkö nuo siviilit ryssämielisiä.
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
World
By Pamela Falk
May 13, 2022 / 5:29 AM / CBS News
United Nations — Britain's ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday that there were "credible" claims Russian forces have committed sexual violence against children in Ukraine, as U.N. agencies said Vladimir Putin's invasion had driven more than 6 million people to flee the country. The U.N. refugee agency reported the grim statistic, which, combined with the roughly 8 million Ukrainians who have been displaced within their country, means a third of Ukraine's people have been forced from their homes.
The war's effect on Ukraine's youth has been particularly devastating, and Britain's U.N. ambassador said that appeared to extend to sexual violence committed against children by the invading forces.
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, citing the U.N. humanitarian agency, said at least 238 children were believed to be among the thousands of civilians killed since Russia launched its war, with 347 more injured.
"There are credible allegations of sexual violence against children by Russian forces," Woodward added. "As others have said, mass displacement has left children exposed to human trafficking and sexual exploitation."
Last month, Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudyk told CBS News that sexual violence was being used systematically "in all the areas that were occupied by the Russians."
"Rape is used as a tool of war in Ukraine to break our spirits, to humiliate us and to show us that we can be helpless to protect our women and children and their bodies," Kira Rudyk, a member of Ukraine's Parliament, told CBS News. "It is happening systematically in the occupied territories."
At the Security Council on Thursday, U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) Deputy Executive Director Omar said "children and parents tell us of their 'living hell,' where they were forced to go hungry, drink from muddy puddles, and shelter from constant shelling and bombardments, dodging bombs, bullets and landmines as they fled."
He called the war "a child protection and child rights crisis."
"Children in Ukraine have been displaced, hurt, orphaned, or killed," U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Richard Mills told diplomats. "Of the nearly 14 million people forced to flee their homes since the conflict escalated, approximately half are innocent children; children who deserve a chance to live, grow, and thrive, but instead, are struggling every day to survive in horrific circumstances."
Briefing diplomats at the Security Council, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya said "civilians — particularly women and children — are paying the heaviest price" in the war.
Msuya said the situation was deeply worrying in the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas, where Russia is currently focusing its assault. She said there were an estimated 40,000 people cut off from electricity, water and gas supplies there alone.
The U.N. Human Rights Council met in a special session in Geneva on Thursday, meanwhile, where High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said "1,000 civilian bodies had been found in the Kyiv region alone... some had been killed in hostilities, but others appeared to have been summarily executed."
"These killings of civilians often appeared to be intentional, carried out by snipers and soldiers. Civilians were killed when crossing the road or leaving their shelters to seek food and water. Others were killed as they fled in their vehicles," Bachelet said.
CBS News partner network BBC News documented one such alleged killing on Thursday. The network obtained video from multiple security cameras around a business outside of Kyiv that appear to show several Russian soldiers shooting an unarmed civilian security guard in the back, and then looting the business.
One of the soldiers is seen breaking a security camera with the butt of his rifle, apparently upon realizing that he and his colleagues' actions were being recorded.
In the U.S., help is available for survivors of sexual violence and their families. RAINN offers resources at 1-800-656-HOPE, and on their website, www.rainn.org
U.N. told "credible" claims of sexual violence against children as Russia's war drives a third of Ukrainians from their homes
By Pamela Falk
May 13, 2022 / 5:29 AM / CBS News
United Nations — Britain's ambassador to the United Nations said Thursday that there were "credible" claims Russian forces have committed sexual violence against children in Ukraine, as U.N. agencies said Vladimir Putin's invasion had driven more than 6 million people to flee the country. The U.N. refugee agency reported the grim statistic, which, combined with the roughly 8 million Ukrainians who have been displaced within their country, means a third of Ukraine's people have been forced from their homes.
The war's effect on Ukraine's youth has been particularly devastating, and Britain's U.N. ambassador said that appeared to extend to sexual violence committed against children by the invading forces.
British Ambassador Barbara Woodward, citing the U.N. humanitarian agency, said at least 238 children were believed to be among the thousands of civilians killed since Russia launched its war, with 347 more injured.
"There are credible allegations of sexual violence against children by Russian forces," Woodward added. "As others have said, mass displacement has left children exposed to human trafficking and sexual exploitation."
Last month, Ukrainian lawmaker Kira Rudyk told CBS News that sexual violence was being used systematically "in all the areas that were occupied by the Russians."
"Rape is used as a tool of war in Ukraine to break our spirits, to humiliate us and to show us that we can be helpless to protect our women and children and their bodies," Kira Rudyk, a member of Ukraine's Parliament, told CBS News. "It is happening systematically in the occupied territories."
At the Security Council on Thursday, U.N. children's agency (UNICEF) Deputy Executive Director Omar said "children and parents tell us of their 'living hell,' where they were forced to go hungry, drink from muddy puddles, and shelter from constant shelling and bombardments, dodging bombs, bullets and landmines as they fled."
He called the war "a child protection and child rights crisis."
"Children in Ukraine have been displaced, hurt, orphaned, or killed," U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Richard Mills told diplomats. "Of the nearly 14 million people forced to flee their homes since the conflict escalated, approximately half are innocent children; children who deserve a chance to live, grow, and thrive, but instead, are struggling every day to survive in horrific circumstances."
Briefing diplomats at the Security Council, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya said "civilians — particularly women and children — are paying the heaviest price" in the war.
Msuya said the situation was deeply worrying in the Luhansk region, in eastern Ukraine's industrial heartland of Donbas, where Russia is currently focusing its assault. She said there were an estimated 40,000 people cut off from electricity, water and gas supplies there alone.
The U.N. Human Rights Council met in a special session in Geneva on Thursday, meanwhile, where High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said "1,000 civilian bodies had been found in the Kyiv region alone... some had been killed in hostilities, but others appeared to have been summarily executed."
"These killings of civilians often appeared to be intentional, carried out by snipers and soldiers. Civilians were killed when crossing the road or leaving their shelters to seek food and water. Others were killed as they fled in their vehicles," Bachelet said.
CBS News partner network BBC News documented one such alleged killing on Thursday. The network obtained video from multiple security cameras around a business outside of Kyiv that appear to show several Russian soldiers shooting an unarmed civilian security guard in the back, and then looting the business.
One of the soldiers is seen breaking a security camera with the butt of his rifle, apparently upon realizing that he and his colleagues' actions were being recorded.
In the U.S., help is available for survivors of sexual violence and their families. RAINN offers resources at 1-800-656-HOPE, and on their website, www.rainn.org
Leaderwolf
Respected Leader
Hetkinen... Minäkin olen uskossa. Ja ensimmäisenä kääntämässä hyökkäävän ryssän persposket grillipihveiksi 227mm kebabtikuilla. 12 varrasta kerrallaan. Kun puolustetaan omaa maata, isänmaata, raamattu kertoo sen olevan oikeutettu taistelu. Huhtasaari saa lukea Kremlin versiota jos haluaa, mutta älä sotke noita ihmisiä uskoon yleisesti. Täällä Etelä-Pohjanmaalla ei oikein katsota hyvällä jos yleistetään väärässä paikassa.
Luin jostain että pieni määrä siviilejä jäi sekä Lymaniin että Severodonetskiin, ovat ryssämielisiä. Voi olla että vapauttaja ei olekaan ihan sitä mitä ajateltiin.Tässä pidempi versio tuosta. Liekkö nuo siviilit ryssämielisiä.
Pihkakoski
Ylipäällikkö
Olet kritiikissäsi oikeassa. Kirjoitin epäselvästi. Tarkoitus oli nostaa esiin, kaikkea olemassa-olevaa reaalimaailman olevaisuutta vastaan oleva, fanaattinen usko. Tapa toimia uskossaan, jossa muuta ei voi olla eikä ole. Valittu sokeus.
Hieman haastavaa selkeästi ilmaista... Mitään epäilyksiä, näin ateistina, minulla ei ole uskonnossa elävien moraliteettien suhteen lähtökohtaisesti, suhteessa itseeni. Johtuen uskonnosta. Pl. jossakin määrin Islam, mikä jo olemukseltaan ts. suorana Allahin sanana, ei kovin hyviä mahdollisuuksia kulttuurien muutokseen anna. Tämä edellinen, moneen kertaan henkilökohtaisessa elämässä tullut todistelluksi. Myös teorian pohjalta koeteltuna.
Vielä loppukaneettina; pahoittelut Sinulle ja muille uskossa oleville. Sanavalintani eivät olleet tuossa tekstissä onnistuneita tarkkuudessaan.
Joo, mutta Huhtasaari ei edes usko evoluutioon. Jopa katolinen kirkkokin on sen jo myöntänyt!