Country: Russia

Group: Ukrainians

Date Finalized 4/4/2022

Team: Hajer Rahee (lead)

Content Warning: Sexual assault, Violence, War, Suicide

Approximate Time Period: 2014 – Present

Since 2014, Russia has led invasions into Ukraine’s Donbas and Crimea regions that have resulted in the sexual assault of Ukrainian women (Iarmoshchuk & Wesolowsky, 2020; McKernan, 2022). One of the victims, a woman, stated that Russian kidnappers abducted her on the accusation of her being “spy”. The assailants subsequently raped and tortured her (Iarmoshchuk & Wesolowsky, 2020). According to Radio Free Europe, 1 in 4 people who were abducted by the separatists have endured some form of sexual assault (Iarmoshchuk & Wesolowsky, 2020). These cases generally occurred in Ukraine’s Donbas (Radio Free Europe).

Data Quality: Data quality for the Ukrainian sexual assaults is rated a 3/3 due to the information available coming from some sources that are not peer reviewed.

Sources

  1. Iarmoshchuk, T., & Wesolowsky, T. (2020). For Victims Of Sexual Violence In Ukraine’s Donbas, Justice Seems Distant. RadioFreeEurope RadioLiberty. https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-sexual-violence-donbas-victims-justice/30990565.html
  2. McKernan, B. (2022). Rape as a weapon: huge scale of sexual violence inflicted in Ukraine emerges. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/03/all-wars-are-like-this-used-as-a-weapon-of-war-in-ukraine