Statement by Deputy Permanent Representative Gennady Kuzmin at UNSC open debate “Accountability as Prevention: Ending Cycles of Sexual Violence in Conflict”
Mr.President,
We thank Secretary-General and his Special Representative Ms. Pramila Patten for preparing 2021 report. We also thank all invited briefers who spoke today.
We are convinced that the work aimed at prevention and eradication of violence should be systemic and all-encompassing, it should account for all established reasons and sources of this evil phenomenon. Targeted efforts to counter manifestations of sexual violence should bring lasting and reliable results. Women and children remain the most vulnerable category of civilians in armed conflict.
Issues of preventing and countering sexual violence at all stages of armed conflicts and in post-conflict situations fall under the competence of national governments in the first place. All measures taken by UN bodies and civil society should supplement national efforts.
Mr.President,
We are concerned over the information contained in UNSG report regarding an increase of violence against women and girls in conflict zones in Africa, Colombia, Syria.
Thousands of people in Syria who are held in US-controlled camps Al-Hol and Rukban suffer violence, exploitation, abusive treatment. Kicked to the curb of life, they find themselves in a desperate situation. Prostitution, thievery, sexual exploitation of minors, human trafficking, child and early marriages – all of this flourishes in the camps.
Mr.President,
Today we again heard unsubstantiated and baseless accusations addressed to Russian military who are fulfilling their duties in the framework of the special military operation in Ukraine. We strongly reject these virulent unfounded insinuations. We perceive that as part of cynical information war that Ukraine and its Western sponsors are waging on Russia at the moment. Actions of all Russian units in combat setting are subjected to strict rules that are the same for all military personnel, regardless of their rank and position.
This campaign aimed at besmirching Russian military among other things pursues a goal of concealing real cases of sexual violence committed by Ukrainian radicals against civilians in Donbas since 2014.
For years, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and other international institutions have been issuing reports about numerous blatant cases of beatings, genital electrocutions, threats of rape and forced nudity addressed both to men and women, who were accused of collaborating with Donetsk and Lugansk authorities. Detainees did not receive medical aid, encountered death threats and sexual threats regarding themselves and their family members.
So it is no surprise that we see an upsurge of sexual violence in territories under the control of Ukrainian government. We are convinced that such crimes must be strongly condemned and punished, rather than swept under the rug as the West would prefer to do.
Today’s acts of Ukrainian nationalist battalions and units of so-called territorial defense fully emulate the tactics of ISIL terrorists. They use civilians as a human shield, deploy arms in residential buildings, schools, hospitals, and other civil infrastructure. Thereby murders and tortures of Ukrainians whom they suspect of not being loyal to the regime go off-scale.
Here are but a few examples.
On 7 March, military of the DPR, when mine-clearing in the vicinity of Kommunar Mine near Donetsk, discovered a burial with four female bodies. Forensic tests showed that before death, they had been raped and tortured. One of the victims was pregnant. The bodies were discovered in the area where Aidar nationalist battalion had been stationed.
On 28 March, Nazis from Azov battalion tortured a young woman to death in the building of Mariupol’s school 18. Her dismembered body with hands severed and a swastika sign branded onto the belly shocked everyone who saw this. We mentioned this tragedy at UNSC meeting on 11 April.
On March 21, nationalists tortured female gypsies fleeing to Western Ukraine. They were stripped naked, spilled over with brilliant green pigment and tied to a lamppost – because nationalists suspected them of plundering.
On 3 April, members of territorial defense of Pavlograd (Dnipro region) stripped naked a woman from among local residents and tied her to a lamppost. Police officers saw the incident but preferred to not interfere.
Yesterday, concerned Ukrainians uploaded a video on the Internet featuring police officers publicly beating a woman, having tied her to a lamppost and having humiliated her by forced nudity.
This is not empty rhetoric. I am referring to facts that anyone can easily access and verify.
This monstrous practice of using forced nudity as a punishment is more characteristic of Medieval Europe, but somehow it has become a routine for present-day Ukraine.
Conflict in Ukraine has bolstered mechanisms for exploitation of Ukrainian refugees in European states. According to the available data, specialized agencies of the European Union assess the threat of trafficking in Ukrainian refugees as rather high, taking into account the fact that Ukraine recently has ranked among top five states in terms of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Europe. It would be naïve to think that this could change overnight.
Mr.President,
We call on our colleagues not to go by on these worrisome trends or the evidence of sexual crimes committed by Ukrainian military that I mentioned.
Thank you.
Right of reply:
Mr.President,
I took the floor again to briefly address Head of the EU delegation regarding his remarks. Mr.Skoog, you represent a serious association – the European Union. I did not react to individual statements by delegations of EU members, who with a varying degree of intensity that depended on their different historical phobias, in particular their Russophobia, accused Russia and its armed forces of what you know never happened. I imagined you would give more sensible and thoughtful assessments of what is happening in Ukraine, in particular with regard to crimes under consideration. I might expect Lithuania and Estonia to accuse Russian military of raping all women and eating them thereafter or whatever. I might expect that of them, but not of you. All this is very deplorable.
