Ukraine accuses Russian snipers of raping children, women

Ukrainian officials have accused a pair of Russian snipers of sexually abusing a young girl and gang-raping her mother at gunpoint last year while her father looked on, new documents revealed this week.

In files reviewed by Reuters, Ukrainian prosecutors detail a spate of sex crimes allegedly committed by the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade in four homes in the Brovary district, outside of Kyiv, in March 2022.

On March 13, two snipers, ages 28 and 32, broke into the yard of a young family’s home in Brovary, near Kyiv, while “in a state of alcoholic intoxication,” the documents allege.

The snipers proceeded to beat the father with a metal pot before forcing him to kneel and watch while his wife was gang-raped.

The soldiers are also said to have sexually assaulted the family’s four-year-old daughter while they taunted the father with promises to “make her a woman.”

The pair also allegedly attacked an elderly couple next door, and raped a 41-year-old pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl.

The description of the heinous incidents, which were culled from interviews with witnesses and survivors, are part of what prosecutors claim was a spate of sexual violence in the Brovary area in the days after Russia’s failed attempt to capture Kyiv.

“[The soldiers] singled out the women beforehand, coordinated their actions and their roles,” the report alleges.

At one location that housed several families, the soldiers forced everyone into the kitchen and gang-raped a mother and her 15-year-old daughter, prosecutors said.

All the victims survived, and are reportedly receiving medical and psychological care.

The older of the two snipers has died while the other, Yevgeniy Chernoknizhniy, is believed to have returned to Russia.

But when Reuters tried to contact Chernoknizhniy relatives, a tearful family member claimed that he was also deceased.

In addition to the two snipers, there are four other Russian soldiers implicated in the investigation. 

Ukraine’s prosecutors are also purportedly looking into the possible role of superior Russian officials in the Brovary atrocities.

The horrific accusations from last March are part of Ukraine’s ongoing reports of alleged systemic abuse by Russian soldiers throughout the year-long invasion.

Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s office is investigating over 71,000 reported war crimes since Russia’s forces invaded last February. 

Thus far, only 26 Russians have been convicted, including one count of rape.

While suspected war criminals will likely not be surrendered by Moscow, any convicted in absentia could be placed on international watch lists.

With Post wires