A special British-led investigations unit will hunt down and prosecute Russian troops suspected of rape and other sex attacks on men, women and children in Ukraine.
The Sexual Violence Mobile Justice Team will train local detectives and help hunt for sex attackers among the Russian military, many still in Ukraine.
It will investigate reports of depraved attacks on children as young as four and elderly men and women, some of them in their eighties.
British human rights lawyer Wayne Jordash is head of the team, and said Moscow’s commanders are suspected of promoting sex attacks in Ukraine.
He said: “Russian commanders are acquiescing, encouraging and even ordering these sexual violence crimes.”
Many of the allegations are aimed at convicted sex attackers given pardons by President Vladimir Putin. Russia ’s Wagner Group mercenaries, who have committed war crimes in conflicts such as Syria, are also now in Ukraine.
The team of legal experts, including Ukrainians, has been set up by human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance, based in the Hague. It said there were “mounting concerns” that sexual violence was at a “systematic level”.
It went on: “Evidence is emerging that children as young as four and grandparents as old as 85 have been subjected to rape and horrific sexual violence.” One victim reported to the team that she was raped while her five-year-old child was in the next room.
It is also suspected that a Russian soldier attempted to rape the child. In another horror, women were herded into a basement to be sexually attacked.
Mr Jordash, KC, and founder of Global Rights Compliance, said: “Putin’s forces are committing sexual violence crimes on a widespread scale.
“The pattern of rape and other acts of sexual violence against innocent Ukrainian women, men and children suggests a desire to humiliate and terrorise civilians.
“Consistent with Putin and his forces’ stated attempt to strip a nation of its human and national identity, the crimes seem to be a deliberate attack on the very fabric of Ukraine’s society.”
Russia is continuing its air attacks on Ukraine. Smoke and fire were seen over Kherson shipyards after a missile attack on Karabell Island in Kherson on Wednesday.
The US looks set to provide Kyiv with Patriot surface-to-air missiles to help Ukraine defend itself.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned it would be a “provocative move” that could lead to unspecified “consequences”.
