Russia has dismissed claims by the United Nations (UN) that Moscow was of employing a “deliberate” rape “strategy” as part of its military campaign in Ukraine.
Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, told AFP on Thursday that there were many cases of sexual violence against children in Ukraine. Patten said:
When you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it’s clearly a military strategy.
There are many cases of sexual violence against children who are raped, tortured and sequestered.
I have not stopped since February to emphasize the importance of having credible investigations into these cases of violence.
Russia has, however, dismissed the report saying the claims go “beyond the reach of reason.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Sunday:
One cannot even comment on P. Patten’s … words in a serious way.
Once again, what we are seeing is a classic ‘highly likely’ [story], which has this time reached the level of twisted imagination.
Zakharova said Patten made her conclusions based on fragmentary data provided by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine – a group created in spring 2022 on the basis of a resolution of the UN Human Rights Council. Russia has not recognized its mandate.
Zakharova recalled 2011 claims by US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, that then-Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi supplied his troops with Viagra to supposedly encourage mass rape during a conflict with NATO-backed rebels.
The conflict ended with the brutal murder of Gaddafi.
US military and intelligence officials subsequently told NBC that there was no evidence that the Libyan military was being supplied with Viagra or engaging in systematic rape in “rebel areas.”
Zakharova said the West is using the “same patterns in its hybrid war.”