These rapes, which began in 2014, number in the thousands, affecting mainly women, but also children and men, civilians or soldiers still detained in Russian prisons. However, these crimes against humanity are so far the least covered of the Russian war against Ukraine.

The press conference covers the following points:

- The scale and severity of rape and torture committed by Russian soldiers, from 2014 to the present. The use of rape and sexual torture in Russian prisons where more than 3,000 Ukrainian men and women are currently being held.

- The widespread use of these sexual crimes is part of a strategy in its own right. Their number indicates that they could not have been committed without the consent, or even the encouragement, of the military hierarchy, right up to the top of the Russian state. Just like the large-scale deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, mass rapes demonstrate the deliberate will of the Russian authorities to destroy the Ukrainian people.

- Difficulties in documenting the facts, linked to obstacles in collecting testimonies which

are due to the reluctance of victims to file complaints and the lack of training of Ukrainian police and judicial services.

- The jurisdictions which would be able to deal with these crimes (Ukrainian or European courts, ICC?).

The speakers:

The four members of the NGO SEMA Ukraine present at the conference were all detained by the Russian army in various periods from 2014 to 2023, they are survivors of torture and sexual violence. They provide assistance to other survivors.

- Iryna Dovgan , founder and president of the NGO SEMA Ukraine

- Lyudmyla Huseynova , member of SEMA Ukraine, journalist (online from Kyiv)

- Olena Apchel , member of SEMA Ukraine, director (online from Kyiv)

- Alisa Kovalenko , member of SEMA Ukraine, documentary filmmaker

- Oleksandra Matviichuk , human rights lawyer, President of the Center for

Civil Liberties of Ukraine, Nobel Peace Prize 2022 (online from Kyiv).

- Florence Hartmann , journalist and essayist. Spokesperson and political advisor to the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda (2000-2006)

Conference presented by Sylvie Rollet, President of the association For Ukraine, for their freedom and ours!

Press review following the conference

The Figaro

The fight of rape victims in Ukraine to break the silence (Nicolas Barotte, June 13, 2024)

The deputies they were supposed to meet, caught up in the dissolution, cancelled their appointment. Nor was their meeting schedule scheduled at the Quai d'Orsay. In any case, the " survivors " of the Sema association are continuing their journey to make the voices of victims of sexual violence in Ukraine heard. " We have nothing in particular to ask of France or the international community, the only important point is to be aware of the tragedy , " explains Irina Dovgan, the founder of Sema, with lucidity, strength and modesty.

The World

Criminals often say it is so that the victims will no longer have children (Faustine Vincent, June 14, 2024)

The testimonies collected from the victims have brought to light Russia’s “strategic goal” with this sexual violence. “Criminals often say it’s so they don’t have children anymore,” Hartmann says. This strategy echoes another: the Russification of children in the occupied territories and in Russia , where thousands of them have been forcibly transferred. For Iryna Dovgan, chair of SEMA Ukraine and a survivor of rape in Donbass in 2014, the connection between the two is clear: “This is a desire to exterminate the Ukrainian population.”

These rapes are not isolated incidents or the result of individual excesses, but a weapon of war in their own right. "The UN commission of inquiry identified similar patterns in many places and concluded that this was a deliberate and systematic policy ," stresses Florence Hartmann. "This is part of a campaign of persecution against Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war." According to the essayist, "these are therefore not simple war crimes. These rapes constitute crimes against humanity or genocide, depending on the intentionality."

West France

Survivors of Russian rapes alert the international community (Patrice Moyon, June 14, 2024)

For rapes, this involves removing many legal obstacles, including in Ukraine. " The Ukrainian criminal code is not adapted to this situation ," explains Florence Hartmann. " Similarly, compensation is provided for the families of veterans or for those who lost their homes in the context of this war, but nothing for the women, men and children who were raped ," specifies Iryna Dovgan.

The Republican Lorraine

They are trying to break us (Cyrielle Thevenin, June 16, 2024)

"Imagine that you are a woman with other criminals held by the Russian army, there is no light or electricity. You have no medical help, you do not see your loved ones, you do not even have the opportunity to take a shower, nor basic hygiene means. Dirty hands start touching you everywhere to see if you have hidden something. Every day the door opens and a hand points you out as the one who will serve as an object of pleasure for a fighter. All this continues in 2024, in the 21st century, on the territory of Ukraine, on the territory of Europe.

General press review

Paris-Match

Rapes in Ukraine: meeting with those who find the strength to testify (Manon Quérouil-Bruneel, June 2, 2024)

"What she says, the world would prefer not to believe. But every damning detail shows the barbarity of Russian sexual crimes. And their systematization. In an unprecedented gesture in history, Ukraine did not wait for the end of the conflict to launch investigations. And to reduce the sentences. But their execution is based on the hypothetical arrest of the criminals, the only hope for these women to one day be able to rebuild their lives. Because war rape destroys more than bodies, it transforms victims into pariahs. Terror and the weight of the taboo still gag thousands of them. Barely 300 complaints have been filed with the attorney general. The ages of the victims, a third of whom are men, vary between 4 and 82 years old."

The World

The long struggle of Ukrainian women victims of sexual violence, “survivors” in a country where rape is taboo (Florence Aubenas, April 19, 2024)

The first words that survivors end up whispering in her ear are always the same: "I don't want anyone to know, I want to be able to get married and have a family. Otherwise, no one will want me anymore." Those who are in a relationship do everything they can to hide it from their partner: "He's going to reject me." And there is this terror of being pregnant - especially among young girls - that has been carried for decades by popular beliefs: "If you abort your first child, you will remain sterile." The subject is so delicate to broach that some of the foundation's drivers do not dare get out of the car. This burden of society, the gynecologist Natalia Leliukh knows him well. In 2021, the doctor wanted to develop the first sex education program for Ukrainian high school students with UNICEF and the Ministry of Health. The project had to be abandoned in the face of an outcry from parents and institutions.

In Ukraine, large-scale trauma of civilians (Faustine Vincent, February 23, 2024)

Within society, many also believe that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) only affects military personnel. "People are only beginning to understand, little by little, that it affects everyone," continues Anna Tchasovnikova. "There are no national studies yet, but according to some scientific forecasts, 30% to 50% of Ukrainians will develop PTSD."

Rapes and sexual assaults were carried out with extreme cruelty (Annick Cojean, October 20, 2022)

Horrible war crimes have taken place in Ukraine. Rape and all kinds of sexual assaults have been carried out by Russian forces, often systematically, with extreme brutality and cruelty. Investigations into specific, verified cases prove that this is a military strategy aimed at dehumanizing the victims and terrorizing the population. Rape in Ukraine is indeed a weapon of war.