The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented 1,004 cases of sexual violence linked to Russia's invasion of Ukraine between 24 February 2022 and the end of July 2026. The report, released on Friday, attributes 89% of the cases to Russian authorities — the armed forces, the prison service and the security service — and 11% to Ukrainian authorities.
The document, titled Sexual Violence in the Context of the Russian Federation Full-Scale Armed Attack against Ukraine, was produced with the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
Most victims are men in detention
Contrary to the pattern most often associated with armed conflict, the majority of recorded victims are men, above all in detention facilities. Women and children also appear, mainly in occupied territories. The youngest victim was 4 years old; the oldest, 82.
Among Ukrainian prisoners of war, 27% reported electric shocks to the genitals administered with Soviet-made field telephones known as tapiks — 155 cases. The report also describes rape, gang rape, genital mutilation, beatings, forced nudity and degrading sexual acts.
Repetition is a central feature: around 75% of detained prisoners of war and half of detained civilians suffered sexual violence more than once.
"On both sides, but not on the same scale"
Danielle Bell, head of the Monitoring Mission, said the violations occurred "on both sides" but differ "in scope and scale" — a formulation that holds the 89%-to-11% asymmetry without absolving Kyiv.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said he was "deeply alarmed by the prevalence of these abhorrent acts" and feared they were "almost certainly continuing". The report calls for the abuses to "stop immediately" and for Russia to take "concrete and discernible steps" to protect civilians and prisoners of war from all forms of torture, including sexual violence.
Why the number matters
A thousand documented cases is not the total number of cases that occurred. Reports of this kind record only what was established through direct interviews and corroboration — and sexual violence has the lowest reporting rate among war crimes. The OHCHR itself treats the figure as a floor, not an estimate.
The legal qualification also carries weight: by framing the practice as torture, the report places it under international criminal accountability regimes that do not depend on a tribunal specific to Ukraine.
With information from the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), UN News and Euronews.
