Turkey offers proposal to Russia and Ukraine to end Black Sea fighting

On September 18, the United Nations released a report detailing over 1,000 cases of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. According to the report, 89% of these cases, totaling 892 instances, were perpetrated by Russia, primarily by its military and security forces. Most of the victims, 725 cases, were men.

The report documented various forms of sexual violence, including gang rape, torture that mutilated genitals, forced stripping, beatings of naked victims, and threats of violence. The perpetrators used these acts of violence during arrests, interrogations, and while preparing for prisoner exchanges or release. Russian authorities were found to have taken no steps to prevent or investigate such violence.

The remaining 11% of cases, 11, were attributed to Ukraine, with perpetrators mostly being SBU officers, soldiers, and prison staff. The report also highlighted that the number of cases could be significantly higher, as the monitoring mission worked only in territories controlled by Ukraine and did not record cases where victims refused to have their information made public.

The youngest victim was a four-year-old girl, while the oldest was an 82-year-old woman. The U.N. press release cited several well-documented cases of soldiers raping civilians in Kherson and the Kyiv region.