There is evidence that Russian commanders in several instances were aware of sexual violence by military personnel in Ukraine "and in some cases, encouraging it or even ordering it,” according to an international criminal lawyer assisting Kyiv’s war crimes investigations.
British lawyer Wayne Jordash said that in some areas around the capital of Kyiv in the north, where the probes are most advanced, some of the sexual violence involved a level of organization by Russian armed forces that "speaks to planning on a more systematic level.” He didn’t identify specific individuals under scrutiny.
The previously unreported findings by investigators about the alleged role of commanders and the systematic nature of the attacks in some locations are part of patterns of alleged sexual violence that are emerging as Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its ninth month.