An international team of legal consultants has been working with local prosecutors in the Ukrainian-recaptured city of Kherson in recent days as they begin gathering evidence of alleged sex crimes by the Russian military as part of a wide-ranging investigation, Reuters reported.

The visit by a team from Global Rights Compliance, a foundation specializing in international humanitarian and human rights justice based in The Hague, was not previously reported.

Their efforts are part of a larger international effort to support the overstretched Ukrainian government, which is seeking to hold the Russians accountable for crimes they allegedly committed during the nearly 10-month-old conflict.

Allegations of rape and other violence surfaced across the country in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s February 24 invasion, according to reports compiled by Reuters and a UN investigative body.

Moscow, which says it is conducting a “special military operation” in Ukraine, denies committing war crimes or targeting civilians, and the Kremlin denies allegations of sexual abuse by Russian troops in Ukraine.

Russia blames “rumors and gossip”

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not answer the question.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on December 9 that the UN report on Russia’s attacks on civilians was based on “rumors and gossip”, and Moscow accused Ukrainian forces of brutal repression against civilians who cooperated with Russian forces.

The scale of the mission of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office is impressive, and the number of alleged international crimes reaches tens of thousands, and the war in the east and south of the country makes the already difficult work even more difficult and dangerous.

“I came here on a three-day mission to support the Office of the Prosecutor General (OPG), and in particular the team investigating sexual violence related to the conflict,” said Julian Elderfield, one of the legal advisers who participated in the visit to Kherson . which took place from Thursday to Saturday.

“It’s about asking the right questions, conducting unique or different lines of investigation that local investigators wouldn’t otherwise pursue,” he told Reuters in Kherson on Saturday.

Kherson was occupied by Russian forces for several months before Ukrainian forces retook it in early November in one of Moscow’s biggest military defeats to date.

Some local residents who remained during the occupation said they were detained and tortured by the Russians, echoing accusations made by Ukrainians in territory that has been retaken by local forces in recent months.

Since the large-scale Russian invasion, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has reported more than 50,000 alleged cases of international crimes.