Ukraine has charged two Russian soldiers who sexually assaulted a four-year-old girl and gang-raped her mother at gunpoint while the woman’s husband watched. These are not the only sexual crimes committed by Russian servicemen of the 15th Infantry Brigade in the first days of the war in March 2022 in Brovary, a suburb of Kyiv, say Ukrainian prosecutors.

During Moscow’s failed attempts to capture Kyiv after the invasion on February 24, 2022, Russian soldiers entered Brovary days later, searching homes and using sexual violence as a tactic to terrorize the population, according to Ukrainian prosecutors’ documents seen by Reuters and based on interviews. with witnesses and victims.

The father is beaten and forced to kneel while his wife is raped

The greatest atrocities allegedly occurred on March 13, 2022, when drunk Russian soldiers broke into the yard of a young family’s house in Brovary. The father was beaten, then forced to kneel, and his wife was gang-raped.

According to documents seen by Reuters, one of the Russian soldiers allegedly told the four-year-old girl that he would “make a woman out of her” before sexually assaulting her.

The girl’s family survived, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office is investigating other crimes, including murders committed by the Russian military during the same period.

The two Russian soldiers accused by the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office were snipers, they were 32 and 28 years old, respectively. The first died at the front, and the youngest, Yevgeny Chornoknizhny, returned to Russia. Reuters journalists tried to contact him and provided a phone number from an online database. A man who called himself the Warlock’s brother and died answered. “He’s dead. You have no way of contacting him. That’s all I can say,” said the man who answered the phone.

Serial sexual violence

The two snipers are part of a group of six suspects accused of the Brovary atrocities, in what Ukrainian prosecutors say is one of the largest investigations into sexual abuse by Russian soldiers since the invasion of Ukraine.

After the attack on the family of a four-year-old girl, two soldiers entered the house of an elderly couple who lived next door. They beat and raped a 17-year-old girl and a 41-year-old pregnant woman.

In another house where several families were staying, Russian soldiers herded everyone into the kitchen and gang-raped a 15-year-old girl and her mother, Ukrainian prosecutors say.

All victims survived and received psychological and medical assistance.

The participation of the Russian command is possible

A preliminary investigation into the possible involvement of high-ranking officials in the attacks in Brovary is ongoing.

The General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine says that it is investigating more than 71,000 war crimes since the beginning of the invasion. Ukrainian investigators say the likelihood of finding and punishing the suspects is low, and potential trials will take place in the absence of those responsible. However, international efforts are being made to punish war criminals, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Reuters notes.

So far, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has convicted 26 Russians of war crimes – some in prison, some in absentia – including one case of rape.

President Vladimir Putin’s government, which says it is fighting Western-backed “neo-Nazis” in Ukraine, has repeatedly denied allegations of killings, rapes and looting of civilians in Ukraine. He also denied that military commanders were aware of the soldiers’ assaults.