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Russian soldiers are accused of torturing, raping and killing women and children amid thewar in Ukraine.
Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko has shared updates of horrifying war crimes reported across the country, including claims that soldiers have raped girls as young as age 10 and have burned swastikas into the flesh of some of their victims.
“Tortured body of a raped and killed woman. I’m speechless. My mind is paralyzed with anger and fear and hatred,” Vasylenko, 35, wrote Sunday with a gruesome photo of one such body. (Warning: this post contains graphic content.)
“Russian soldiers loot, rape and kill. 10 y.o. girls with vaginal and rectal tears,” she wrote in a followuptweet. “Women with swastika shaped burns. Russia. Russian Men did this. And Russian mothers raised them. A nation of immoral criminals.”
Ukrainian PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyyventured into Buchaon Monday, one of the country’s most war-torn suburbs, where Russian soldiers were accused of killing (and in some cases, torturing) around 300 civilians during their occupation. Without any electricity for refrigeration in the morgue, many bodies have been confined to a mass grave.
“We know that thousands of people have been killed and tortured,” Zelenskyy continued. “Their limbs were cut off. Raped women, killed children. I think that this is … actually genocide.”
The latest accounts of civilian deaths spurred further condemnation of Russia. PresidentJoe Bidensaid there should be a “war crime trial” and the U.S. said itwanted Russia suspendedfrom the United Nations' Human Rights Council.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP via Getty
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
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With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and that he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy has vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting. “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
