Russia uses sexual torture as systematic weapon against Ukrainian men: Report

Russian forces have used sexual violence as a systematic weapon of war against Ukrainian men, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation.The report, based on testimony from Ukrainian prosecutors, UN investigators and interviews with former prisoners of war, found that sexual torture of male Ukrainian soldiers and civilians has become a core Russian tactic since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.Before he left for the front line, Serhii Boychuk told his wife he didn't want to be taken alive. A few months later, Russian guards held him for more than two years, raping him with bottles and sticks and pressing a knife against his genitals, the Journal reported. "They wanted to psychologically break me," said Boychuk.Systematic abuseThe UN has gathered testimony in about 310 cases of alleged sexual violence by Russian forces during the war. The violence described includes rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, electric shocks and beatings to the genitals. Among the victims were 280 men, 26 women and four girls.Ukrainian prosecutors told the Journal that the patterns of abuse suggest the crimes weren't simply acts by individuals but were committed as a feature of Russia's military campaign."No one in command could claim under the circumstances not to have known what was happening, even if they did not give orders to those under their control to do it," said David Schwendiman, a former international prosecutor who investigated war crimes in Bosnia.In one widely used torture method, guards attached old army field telephone wires to prisoners' genitals and gave them electric shocks. Prison guards refer to it as a "call to Putin," the UN has noted.The chief prison official in St. Petersburg told guards in charge of Ukrainian POWs that there were no restrictions against violence, which often included sexual abuse, according to former prison officials who spoke to the Journal.Civilians have also fallen victim. Oleksiy Sivak, from Kherson, was jailed after hanging a Ukrainian flag. Guards attached wires to his genitals and gave him electric shocks. Now 42, he runs a support group for around 200 Ukrainian men who allege torture at Russia's hands.Halyna Tyshchenko, 63, told the Journal she was raped at gunpoint in her lounge and then paraded naked along the street in below-freezing temperatures.All Ukrainian former POWs interviewed by the UN reported torture or ill treatment, and over 70 per cent said it involved sexual abuse. Meanwhile, around half of Russian captives who spoke to the UN said Ukrainian forces had mistreated them, of whom less than 5 per cent said they had experienced sexual abuse.Ukrainian investigators say abuse has occurred in nine different camps inside Russia, with treatment particularly brutal in seven of them. The Kremlin and Russia's Federal Prison Service declined to comment, the Journal reported.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.