As part of the many charges of abuse during the more than a year-long invasion, Ukraine has charged two Russian troops of sexually abusing a four-year-old daughter and gang-raping her mother in front of her father. The acts were part of a string of sex crimes Russian troops from the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade perpetrated in four residences in the Brovary neighbourhood outside of Kyiv in March 2022, according to Ukrainian prosecution data seen by Reuters.
Requests for response from the Russian defence ministry were not answered. The brigade’s published phone numbers were in the wrong sequence. When contacted by Reuters, two representatives from the Samara Garrison, which includes the brigade, said they were unable to provide the unit’s contacts and one said they were classified. The Ukrainian prosecutors said that during Moscow’s vain attempt to seize Kiev after its assault on February 24, troops invaded Brovary and intentionally terrorised the populace by robbing and employing sexual abuse.
“They sought out the ladies beforehand, plotted their acts and their responsibilities,” said the prosecutors, whose 2022 materials were based on interviews with witnesses and survivors. The majority of the alleged crimes allegedly occurred on March 13 when troops “broke into the yard of the home where a young family resided in a state of drunken intoxication,” according to the prosecution.
The husband was gang raped as the father was struck with a metal pot and made to kneel. Prior to abusing the 4-year-old child, one of the troops allegedly threatened to “make her a lady” in the papers. The family was spared, but prosecutors said they are looking into more crimes in the neighbourhood, including murders that occurred around the same time. The administration of President Vladimir Putin has consistently refuted accusations of crimes, claiming that it is battling “neo-Nazis” supported by the West in Ukraine. The troops were both snipers, aged 32 and 28, the files revealed.
