Two Russian Snippers in Alleged Gang-Rape Spree

Kyiv has accused two Russian soldiers of sexually assaulting a four-year-old girl and gang raping her mother at gunpoint, all in front of her father. The abuse, according to Ukrainian officials is part of widespread allegations of abuse by Russian troops in the course of the more than one-year-long invasion.

Reuters reports on Monday say the revelation is contained in an Ukrainian prosecution files which documented the incident as part of a spree of sex crimes committed particularly by Russian soldiers of the 15th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade in March, in four homes of Brovary district, near Kyiv.

Thus far, Russia's Defence Ministry has not responded to any media request for comment on the issue just as calls to phone numbers listed for the brigade were not answered as they are said to be out of order. However, two officials at the Samara Garrison, housing the brigade said they are unable to give Brigade unit contacts for the unit, with one saying they were classified.

Prosecution alleged that Russian soldiers entered Brovary a few days after Moscow's failed push to capture Kyiv. The rampaging soldiers, the allegation added, looted and used sexual violence as a deliberate tactic to terrorise the population. Most of the atrocities are said to have been committed on February 13 when the alleged culprits, in what is described as "...a state of alcoholic intoxication, broke into the yard of the house where a young family lived."

The document further revealed that the father of the abused child was beaten with a metal pot and forced to kneel while his wife was gang raped. One of the soldiers was also alleged to have told the four-year-old girl that he "will make her a woman" before she was actually abused. 

"They singled out the women beforehand, coordinated their actions and their roles," said the prosecutors, whose 2022 documents were based on interviews with witnesses and survivors.

Russia's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Phone numbers listed for the brigade were out of order. Two officials at the Samara Garrison, of which the brigade is a part, said they were unable to give contacts for the unit when contacted by Reuters, with one saying they were classified.

Most of the alleged atrocities took place on March 13, when soldiers "in a state of alcoholic intoxication, broke into the yard of the house where a young family lived," the prosecutors alleged.

The father was beaten with a metal pot then forced to kneel while his wife was gang raped. One of the soldiers told the four-year-old girl he "will make her a woman" before she was abused, the documents revealed.

The identified culprits are snipers, aged 32 and 28. While the former is said to have died while the younger one is identified as Yevgeniy Chernoknizhniy, who has since returned to Russia. However, both of them are among six suspects accused in the Brovary assaults, said to be one of the most extensive investigations of sexual abuse since the invasion.

The duo were also alleged to have moved on to the nearby home of an elderly couple after raping mother and child. While there, they beat the couple before raping the pregnant 41 year-old woman and a 17-year-old girl.

They went to another location with several families thereafter, forced everyone into the kitchen and also gang raped a 15-year-old girl and her mother. All victims are said to have survived and were receiving psychological and medical support.