Russian soldiers have been accused of raping children in towns and villages surrounding the eastern city of Kharkiv.
Lyudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights made the allegation, claiming that a one-year-old baby boy died after being raped by Russian soldiers, Mail Online reports.
Other allegations in the report, listed by Ukrainian journalist Iryna Matviyishyn, include the rape of three nine-year-old triplets in front of their mother, the rape of a two-year-old girl who survived, and the rape of two ten-year-old boys, among other unspeakable crimes.
The Twitter page for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence attributed to Denisova’s report: ’10 reports of rape by the occupiers, including 8 children, were received from newly liberated villages in the Kharkiv region in just one hour.
‘Yesterday – 56 reports. Among the children: two 10-year-old boys and a 1-year-old boy who died of his injuries.’
The report also accuses Russian soldiers of raping two men aged 67 and 78.
‘Reportedly, the Commissioner’s Psychological Assistance Line receives calls about such war crimes every day now,’ tweeted Matviyishyn.
This is a very small part of territory that was liberated from Russians, compared to those towns, villages and cities that are still under the occupation,’ she said.
‘We can only imagine the number of such atrocities in Kherson, Melitopol, Mariupol, Berdyansk, and others.’
The first Russian soldier to go on trial for war crimes in Ukraine pleaded guilty yesterday.
Vadim Shishimarin, 21, a former tank sergeant in the Russian army, pleaded for forgiveness with Kateryna Shelypova, whose husband Oleksandr he killed in the opening days of the war, as she confronted at a Kyiv court.
Shishimarin is facing life in jail after pleading guilty to charges of war crimes and murder for killing Oleksandr, who was shot in the village of Chupakhivka, Sumy region, on February 28 while pushing his bicycle along the road.