SGBV

Conflicts are always accompanied by violence against women and girls. We are aware of cases of trafficking in persons on temporarily occupied territories, sexual violence and exploitation, and the use of minors in military activities, which are incompatible with human rights law and unacceptable in our contemporary world and goes against the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which was ratified by the Russian Federation. .

Allow me now to offer a few examples. Last month we discovered a shocking fact regarding the gender element of the violence in the temporary occupied territories of Donetsk oblast. Such violence was perpetrated by members of armed gangs and terrorist groups, including fighters of the so-called Pyatnashka International Brigade of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic. That involved the setting up of establishments where minors were forced to provide sexual services. Human trafficking also took place. Foreign nationals established studios to produce child pornography, and the materials were then distributed outside of Ukraine. Furthermore, children were recruited and received military training to participate in the fighting. That is yet another example of what we are also trying to resolve in the Minsk Working Group on Humanitarian Issues.

We have been unable to gather a complete set of evidence on the incidents, including the cases of sexual violence.

In that regard, I want to take this opportunity to reiterate once again, on behalf of Ukraine, our appeal to the United Nations to include in the mandates of the appropriate bodies of the Organization the need to combat sexual violence during the provoked armed conflict in Ukraine and the Crimea.