Russia’s war in Ukraine: Live updates

Russia’s military uses rape and sexual violence as a part of its “military strategy” in Ukraine, a UN envoy said in an interview with AFP on Thursday.  

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten said the United Nations has verified “more than a hundred cases” of rape or sexual assault incidents in Ukraine since February, citing in part the findings of a UN panel of expert in September.  

CNN did report at the time on the findings of the UN’s Independent International Commission on Ukraine. The commission said it had uncovered evidence of war crimes, including cases of rape and torture of children, without specifying the number of alleged cases.  

But Patten was more specific in her comments.

“When you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy,” Patten said on Thursday. 

Patten repeated that the age of the sexual violence victims in the cases the UN has investigated ranges from four to 82-years old. She said “there are many cases of sexual violence against children, who are raped, tortured and sequestered.”

CNN cannot independently verify these claims. 

Patten also said the number of victims is “never going to reflect reality,” because it is an underreported crime.  

“I have not stopped since February to emphasize the importance of having credible investigations into these cases of violence,” she said.

In June, Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Kateryna Pavlichenko said police received around 50 complaints of sexual crimes committed by Russian soldiers. Prosecutors are also investigating a number of allegations of rape in Kharkiv region after Ukraine recently recaptured territory there.  

Russia’s government spokesman Dmitry Peskov was asked in September about allegations of Russian forces committing war crimes in Ukraine, prior to the UN panel reporting on its findings, to which he responded it was all a “lie.”