A horrific UN report has revealed how Russian forces have used rape as a weapon of war over the last eight months since the Ukraine invasion began.
The testimonies of several Ukrainian victims have been collated with details of Russian soldiers regularly raiding homes of innocent civilians and the vile sexual torture that soon followed.
The commission, in its report, also detailed how Russian soldiers carried out summary executions - which are conducted without full and fair trial - in regions such as Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy Oblast, with youngest victim believed to be a 14-year-old boy.
Members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in the report that they "documented patterns of torture, ill-treatment and unlawful confinement" in Russian-occupied areas, which are all deemed as war crimes.
One of the graphic details in the report recalled how a 22-year-old mother was gang raped by two Russian soldiers, several times, before they sexually abused her husband in Kyiv in March. The soldiers then forced the couple to have sex in front of them before one of them sexually abused their four-year-old daughter.
In many cases, the Russian soldiers would shoot the husbands, or threaten to do so, if they tried to defend their wives from being raped.
An example of this was reported from another village when a 50-year-old woman was taken from her home and her husband was shot as he tried to defend her.
According to the report, she was taken to a nearby empty house and was repeatedly raped. Her husband succumbed to his injuries two days later as he could not be taken to hospital.
The report said: "In most cases, these acts of rape also amount to torture and cruel or inhumane treatment for the victims and for relatives who were forced to watch."
A psychologist as part of the report added: "All victims with whom I am working are blaming themselves for being spotted by perpetrators and being raped."
A 56-year-old from the Kyiv region said how three Russian soldiers raided her home and two had gang raped her while the other watched. They stole money and food from the house, having already tortured and executed her husband.
In the Chernihiv region, an 83-year-old woman told investigators that she was raped by Russian forces in her house where her physically-disabled husband was present.
The commission added: "Stigma that continues to surround sexual violence requires patience until victims feel safe and adequately cared for to speak out about what happened."
