Mass grave found in Bucha as 9 women and girls pregnant after being raped by Russians – World News
It comes as a total of 25 women and girls, some as young as 14, were ‘systematically raped’ by Russian troops after the United Nations warned of widespread sexual violence in Ukraine
Investigators begin the grim task of pulling bodies from a mass grave behind the Church of St. Andrew and All Saints in Bucha (
Image: Carol Guzy/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock)
A mass grave was uncovered in the Ukrainian city of Bucha – amid horrific reports of nine women and girls who have fallen pregnant after being raped by Russian soldiers.
It comes as a total of 25 known women and girls, some as young as 14, were “systematically raped” by Russian troops who occupied the town.
The United Nations has warned of widespread sexual violence in relation to the Russian invasion, with Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine ’s human rights commissioner, saying victims were falling pregnant.
She told the BBC: “Nine of them are pregnant. Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having children.
“A 25-year-old woman called us to say her 16-year-old sister was raped in the street in front of her.”
Forensic police officers exhume bodies in Bucha, outskirts of Kyiv as investigations into alleged war crimes begins
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Image:
Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock)
In another horrifying report of sexual violence, a woman in Kyiv described being raped while her husband shot.
Anna, 50, not her real name, was at home on March 7 when she says soldiers barged into her home before dragging her to a house nearby.
She was made to take her clothes off, as a Russian soldier threatened to shoot her dead if she disobeyed.
She then said the “young, thin” soldier attacked her. She said: “While he was raping me, four more soldiers entered.
“I thought that I was done for. But they took him away. I never saw him again.”
After returning to her home a short walk away, she found her husband had been shot in the abdomen and left to die on the floor.
Bodies at a mass grave outside St Andrews Church in Bucha near Kyiv
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Image:
Daily Mirror/Andy Stenning)
Priests pray over body bags in a mass grave in the garden surrounding the St Andrew church in Bucha
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Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
Anna told the BBC : “He had tried to run after me to save me, but he was hit by a round of bullets.”
The couple sought shelter in a neighbour’s house, but Anna couldn’t take her husband to hospital because of the fighting.
He then died of his injuries two days later, she said.
Anna said she has since been in contact with the local hospital and is receiving psychological support.
Her horrific account comes amid other similar reports of women and even children being attacked.
Pro-Russian troops ride an armoured vehicle during fighting in Ukraine-Russia conflict near a plant of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works company in the southern port city of Mariupol
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Image:
REUTERS)
Russian troops have also been accused of raping a pregnant 16-year-old girl and a 78-year-old grandmother in a Ukrainian village, a senior military official has said.
Oleksandr Vilkul, the head of the military administration of Kryvyi Rih, said they are dealing with “more and more” horror stories.
He spoke of the accusation of rape of a teenager and a gran in the Kherson region by Russian soldiers.
Vilkul also claimed Russian troops shelled a boat evacuating 14 civilians from the Kherson region, killing four people, including two men, one woman and a 13-year-old, on Thursday.
Seven were reportedly hospitalised with two still missing as claims that Vladimir Putin’s army are committing war crimes continue.
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