 "Beaten, tortured, & raped: Survivors share graphic accounts of how Russia-Ukraine war turned bodies into battlefields")
(Trigger warning: Please note that the report contains graphical details of abuse, which could be distressing to some. Reader discretion is advised)
When Russian forces began their full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, they unleashed not only missiles and troops but also a campaign of systematic brutality that extended far beyond the battlefield.
Reports of war crimes surfaced early: executions of prisoners of war (PoWs), forced deportations, indiscriminate shelling of civilian infrastructure. Yet among the most harrowing, and often the most silenced, were accounts of sexual violence.
A recent report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has unearthed deeply unsettling evidence of systematic rape and torture committed by Russian security forces against Ukrainian prisoners and civilians.
“The Commission has now documented new cases of rape and sexual violence, used as forms of torture against female detainees, who were subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment,” said Erik Møse, Chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine.
“Some women were raped during interrogation as a means to coerce, intimidate or punish them; others were subjected to forced nudity in the presence of male guards,” he added.
These are not isolated incidents. Rather, they appear to be part of a methodical campaign of terror– one that uses sexual violence as a weapon of war.
Impact Shorts
More Shorts‘You do not deserve to live’
The advance unedited version of the report mentioned the account of a 40-year-old civilian woman who had walked into a Russian commandant’s office in Kherson in April 2022. She had come to ask about a missing relative.
A Federal Security Service (FSB) officer questioned her, and deemed her uncooperative. He then ordered three Russian soldiers to “talk to her normally, maybe she will remember something.”
What followed was an act of unspeakable cruelty. The soldiers took her into another room, where they took turns raping her, and then did it again using a rubber baton.
One of the members of the panel, Vrinda Grover, while speaking at the release of the report in Geneva last week, told journalists of the account of a civilian woman who had been raped during confinement in a detention facility held by Russian authorities.
This woman “stated that she pleaded with the perpetrators, telling them she could be their mother’s age, but they dismissed her saying, ‘B***h, don’t even compare yourself to my mother. You are not even a human. You do not deserve to live.’”
‘I couldn’t even breathe’
In Russian-controlled detention facilities, such atrocities were routine. A 26-year-old Ukrainian prisoner of war, captured after her surrender in May 2022, was detained for more than two years. The Federal Penitentiary Service subjected her to relentless torture– beatings that lasted for hours, forced nudity, and eventually, rape with a rubber baton.
“It was just pain. I couldn’t even breathe. I couldn’t understand why they would do that to me, how they could do that to someone.”
She bled profusely. She lost consciousness. When she finally came to, she could no longer stand or walk. As punishment, she was placed in solitary confinement for eight months.
The silent wounds of war
The systematic use of rape as torture is not new in war, but in Ukraine, it has taken on an especially insidious form– one that is often hidden from view due to the stigma surrounding sexual violence in the country.
In a deeply religious and conservative society like Ukraine, survivors of sexual violence often face profound shame, isolation, and even suicidal despair. Many do not report their abuse, fearing judgment from their communities or even their own families, according to a report by the New York Times.
According to SEMA Ukraine, a network providing support to survivors of wartime sexual violence, many women have remained silent– alone in their suffering. Some have taken their own lives. Others have retreated into isolation, unwilling or unable to confront the horrors they endured.
Torture as a crime against humanity
The Commission’s report makes it clear: this was not the work of rogue soldiers acting on their own impulses. The Federal Security Service– the powerful intelligence agency at the heart of the Russian state– exercised the highest authority in detention facilities.
The agency’s operatives routinely tortured detainees, using electric shocks, suffocation, and brutal beatings. They also used sexual violence to break their victims psychologically. In one case, officers threatened a female prisoner, who had been subjected to multiple electric shocks, unless she confessed.
“If you will continue to deny, your brother will suffer, […] and do not forget that we can also bring your daughters here,” they stated, according to Erik Møse.
A crime beyond the battlefield
The testimonies from survivors bear chilling resemblance to past conflicts, where rape was deployed as a calculated means of terrorizing populations. From the Balkans to Rwanda, from Syria to Ukraine, the pattern is hauntingly familiar.
What makes this war particularly insidious is that Russian authorities have refused to acknowledge these crimes, let alone investigate them. The Commission has sent 31 communications to the Russian government regarding war crimes, including incidents where the alleged victims were Russian. None have been answered.
Meanwhile, survivors in Ukraine have been left to grapple with their trauma alone. Some have turned to underground support networks, whispering their stories to psychologists and aid workers. Others, too shattered to speak, have retreated into silence.
The need for justice
As the war grinds on, the international community faces a critical question: Will these crimes go unanswered? Sexual violence as a weapon of war is a crime against humanity—one that demands justice.
Yet justice remains elusive. While Ukraine has vowed to prosecute Russian war criminals, holding perpetrators accountable is an uphill battle. The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for key Russian figures, but these prosecutions take years—sometimes decades.
For survivors, justice cannot come soon enough. In the words of one rape victim:
“I can’t describe all of it… Those drunk, stinking men, tearing my clothes, treating me like I was a rubber doll… It was unbearable.”
Her words are a stark reminder that war crimes are not only about destroyed buildings and military losses. They are about lives shattered in ways that can never be repaired.
They are about what happens when the world looks away.
Will it?
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