Russian soldiers systematically rape Ukrainian women

European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson warned this Wednesday that Russian soldiers have systematically committed rape since the start of the war and that the number of women raped in Ukraine is growing exponentially.

Ylva Johansson went out of combat during an interview with Politico on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

The European Union (EU), in cooperation with the government of Ukraine, is “funding and establishing” victim support centers in many regions of Ukraine to provide assistance.

Most of the women entering these centers have already been raped, many of them girls, but there are other women who have suffered other traumas.

“Some were forced [por soldados russos] watch other people just get killed or raped,” Johansson said.

Ukraine already had centers to help victims of women, but with the outbreak of the war, in February 2022, the need for assistance and protection increased: “The volumes were completely different,” the commissioner emphasized.

Johansson also explained that the European Commission is working to ensure that assistance is provided to women victims of rape who become pregnant and intend to have an abortion in different Member States.

The Polish government, one of the most reluctant countries to have abortions, promised Brussels that Ukrainian women “will be given the opportunity” to have an abortion, but Johansson said: “I keep getting information that women are being denied abortions.”

Similarly, the European Commissioner assured that while it is “very difficult” to say who has suffered the most from this war, the specific experiences of the refugees are “gendered” as they are mostly women and children trying to rebuild their lives across the EU.

In this refugee crisis, Johansson notes that the number of women and children who are victims of human trafficking is very small, since Ukrainian citizens were among the top five victims of human trafficking in the EU even before the war.

“So far, I must say, we have very few cases of human trafficking, given the number of vulnerable people and women and children who have arrived,” he stressed.

He assured that these good results were due to the information campaign against human trafficking in various Member States.

Regarding the refugee crisis in Ukraine, it was announced this Wednesday that the community’s executive branch is “ready” to extend until 2025 and even beyond that date the temporary protection of refugees from Ukraine, a measure that facilitates their access to housing, work, healthcare and education. weight.

The military offensive launched by Russia on February 24, 2022 on the territory of Ukraine has so far caused the flight of more than 14.6 million people – 6.5 million internally displaced persons and more than 8.1 million to European countries – from, according to the latest UN data, who classify this migration crisis as the worst in Europe since the Second World War (1939-1945).

At the moment, at least 18 million Ukrainians are in need of humanitarian assistance, and 9.3 million are in need of food aid and housing.

The Russian invasion, justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security, was condemned by the international community at large, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and imposing political and economic sanctions on Russia.

The UN has presented as confirmed 8,173 civilian deaths and 13,620 wounded since the beginning of the war, stressing that these figures are much lower than the real ones.