Do you think that sexual violence is prevalent in Ukraine (compared to other conflicts)?

[Ad_Quid_Orator]

As soon as the war in Ukraine broke out, I heard many people say that Russian soldiers will likely commit acts of mass rape in Ukraine. The basis for this was the mass rape that occurred near the end of WWII committed by Red Army soldiers against German women. Now I was very hesitant to endorse this proposition because it's "history out of context". What do I mean by that? Well what you don't often hear is the other side of the story. In terms of numbers, the highest estimates for the total number of women raped by Red Army soldiers is between 1.5 to 2 million. However, the maximum number of women in the USSR that have been raped by Wehrmacht forces is around 10 million. With the Nazi-occupied portion of the USSR having ~80 million people, if you were a women aged 15-35, I would say it was more likely than not you would have been sexually assaulted. On top of that, when the Nazis abducted civilians from the occupied territories, the most beautiful women were selected out to be kept as sex slaves in brothels; something that the Soviets didn't do.

Now, I'm not trying to justify sexual assault committed by the Red Army, I'm saying that crimes committed by country A against country B because country B committed far worse crimes against country A isn't a good indication of how likely country A would behave in a war against country C, However, what I suspect is that when Putin framed the fight against "Nazism", he forced said history into context. And if sexual assault is indeed widespread in the Ukraine war, it would open up "old wounds". Because of the many women who were forced into sexual slavery by the Nazis, many would have been Ukrainian. And I'm not just talking about "collective memory" because some of the women forced into sexual slavery are still alive to this day and I can only imagine what they feel about such reports.

[ChrisMaster69]

The basis of it was not the World War Two stuff, this is one of the problems, people refer right back to then and it in essence dilutes everything.

it was based on Georgia, Chechnya, Crimea,

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/oct/27/chechnya.russia2

It is a Russian method of war and inflicting terror on populations.

this is what Putin said before the invasion

Quote
Putin described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in sexual terms, quoting a Soviet-era punk group’s lyrics about rape and necrophilia: “You sleep my beauty, you’re going to have to put up with it anyway.”
Unquote.

https://theconversation.com/rape-by-russian-soldiers-in-ukraine-is-the-latest-example-of-a-despicable-wartime-crime-that-spans-the-globe-180656

There has been a lot of work by the UN and other bodies looking at rape and conduct after capture.

The Bosnian war trials of Serbs was very much focused on rape and genocide.

This is nothing new and is not something that last happened in WW2…

[Mango-man]

I am afraid so since current reports strongly support the previous worries about mass raping and killing by the bandits that invaded Ukraine.

It is really sad how they hurt civilians to break them.

[Agape93]

Yeap. They don't care because they know they'll never be punished for it, as the victims will usually just be murdered anyways. Plus there's also the revenge angle on it as well.

[EnglishEuropean]

Reports suggest that it is.