On 19 June 2008, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1820 (2008), which condemns sexual violence as a tactic of war. The resolution also recognizes that sexual violence may constitute a war crime, a crime against humanity or an integral part of acts constituting genocide.

In the third year of russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the issue of addressing conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) is one of the most acute and urgent. The russian occupying forces are using sexual violence as a method of warfare on an unprecedented scale - in particular to intimidate, take revenge or “punish” both civilians in the occupied territories and Ukrainian prisoners of war, regardless of gender or age.

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine found that in 2023 girls and women aged 15 to 83 were victims of war crimes such as rape and sexual violence committed by the russian occupying forces. Representatives of the russian occupation authorities committed their crimes during house searches and while detaining the victims.

The UN Secretary-General's Annual Report on CRSV for 2023 contains 85 documented cases of conflict-related sexual violence against civilians and prisoners of war, involving 52 men, 31 women, 1 girl and 1 boy. Sexual violence was used as a method of torture in russian captivity in the majority of documented cases. This included rape, threats of rape against the victims and their relatives, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals, electric shocks to the breasts, threats of castration and genital mutilation

Ukrainian prosecutors documented 298 cases of CRSV (109 victims were men, including one minor; 189 victims were women, including 15 minors) between February 2022 and June 2024. The forms of CRSV used by the occupiers include rape, mutilation or violence to the genitals, forced nudity, threats and attempted rape, forcing people to watch the sexual abuse of loved ones, etc.

The very foundations of international law, humanism and basic human rights are being undermined by the scale of barbarism that russia has brought to Ukrainian soil.

Atrocities of the russian occupying forces deserve strong condemnation by the entire international community and concrete actions to restore justice for the victims and the international order as a whole: the strengthening of support for Ukraine, including military support, and the broadening of the international coalition in support of the Peace Formula.

We stress the critical need of the international community's united efforts to combat the disgraceful phenomenon of sexual violence, including conflict-related violence.

We call upon all States, international human rights and humanitarian organizations and mechanisms, both governmental and non-governmental, to continue to document all cases of sexual violence committed by the Russian occupying forces, with a view to bringing to justice those responsible, including the Russian political and military leadership.

The issue of cruel and inhuman treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the russian federation will also be discussed further at a meeting of the Council for Human Rights, Gender Equality and Diversity at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on 20 June.