The Weaponization of Sexual Violence in the Russian-Ukraine War and its Implications

As Russian troops force into Ukrainian territory in a manner contributing to the broader pattern of Russian imperialism, the aftermath reveals a slew of human rights violations — one of the most extensive being sexual violence. In an investigative report, the United Nations General Assembly confirmed vast documentation of rape, mutilation, and sexual enslavement following the siege of Ukrainian cities. The UN Commission has verified victims ranging in age from 4 to 80, encompassing both genders; however, women are disproportionately targeted. While cases of sexual violence remain underreported, the pattern is clear: Russia is using sexual brutality as a tool to subdue and demoralize the Ukrainian population, violating statutes of international human rights law in the process. Official reports state that Russian soldiers are using sexual violence in two circumstances — during acts of brutality in village raids and as a form of torture in Russian-monitored containment centers. 

The Russian army’s village raids spread terror through public humiliation tactics and infiltrating the homes of civilians. During these raids, men are killed, and women are subjected to sexual violence. In Bucha, a town 30 kilometers west of Kyiv, Russian paratroopers occupied and desecrated the city — leaving behind 276 civilian bodies and victims of incomprehensible torture. Among the injured was a group of young girls and women, ages 14 to 24, who had been locked in a basement for several days and subjected to sexual abuse. Of the 25 victims, 9 are now pregnant as a result of the abuse. Lyudmyla Denisova, a Ukrainian human rights advocate, reported that her team is documenting cases like Bucha to uncover the extent to which Russian sexual war crimes are occurring in Ukraine. “The Russian soldiers told [the women] they would rape them….to prevent them from having Ukrainian children,” stated Denisova in a statement to BBC. The United Nations’ definition of genocide includes “[intention] to prevent births within [a] group,” classifying the use of sexual violence by Russian soldiers as a tactic for ethnic cleansing. 

In August 2022, the southern port city of Kherson was occupied. Russian containment centers were then established to provide the Russian army with concealed spaces to conduct dehumanizing methods of sexual torture. Containment detainees were reported as men, both soldiers and civilians, who experienced cases of genital mutilation through electrocution and rape involving objects. Oleksii Sivak, a 39-year-old sailor from Kherson, recounts being arrested by eight men, then beaten and tortured with electric currents. “They moved these [electrical] wires from my ears to my genitals. They said ‘We’re going to sterilize you now,’” revealed Sivak. Victims like Sivak were held captive for months and tortured multiple times a day, physically and emotionally. “We see it over and over again in different regions under occupation. “They use the same method of committing sexual violence, the same method of humiliation, the same method of how they explain it to their victims,” said Anna Sosonska, the acting chief of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General. 

The process of Russian accountability remains treacherous for Ukraine. While the Ukrainian ombudsman office has identified sexual violence perpetrators like Aleksandr Naumanko, the deputy head of the Rosgvardia Russian police force, Ukraine still struggles to uncover and convict the identified. As of May 2024, Ukrainian prosecutors have filed notices of suspicion against 42 Russian officers, written 19 indictments, and sentenced 5 people, yet none of the violators are in Ukrainian custody. Ukraine lacks the access to place soldiers in domestic courts, relying on the Russian state to surrender its citizens. In 2023, the International Criminal Court also issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin regarding war crimes related to the kidnapping of Ukrainian children. However, the warrant failed to address the additional murders and conflict-related sexual violence occurring in Ukraine. Russia has denied involvement and refuses to recognize the court’s jurisdiction, ensuring that the issued warrant will have no effect.

Powers like the United States will also be ineffective at intervening and not utilizing their influence due to a prior stance of not exercising ICC policy on non-member states, exacerbated by the volatility of the new Trump Administration. The most recognition exerted by the U.S. on crimes committed during the Russian-Ukraine War has been in a statement issued by the prior Biden Administration, where the Department of State claimed the ICC as an “independent actor” that should hold accountable “perpetrators of war crimes.” The 2025 Trump Administration has since flipped this statement, demonstrated in a recent vote against a Ukrainian resolution by the UN to demand Russian withdrawal from the war. Following the vote, President Donald Trump claimed Ukraine to be the cause of the war and called President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. These sentiments align with the prior Trump Administration, which sanctioned the ICC’s chief prosecutor during the 2020 investigation of U.S. war crimes in Afghanistan. 
When weaponized, conflict-related sexual violence can further efforts for ethnic cleansing, humiliation, and unlawful expansion. The frequency and openness of such violence in Ukraine confirms that these actions are not individual choices but systemic orders from the Russian hierarchy — a tactic atypical for the leader of a modern nation. “Though we don’t yet know the full extent of its use in Ukraine, it's already clear it was part of Russia’s arsenal,” said Melinda Simmons, the British ambassador to Ukraine. “Women raped in front of their kids, girls in front of their families, as a deliberate act of subjugation.”