Kyiv: Ukrainian forensic doctors have said postmortem examinations on bodies in mass graves in north of Kyiv have revealed that some women were raped before being killed by the Russian forces.
"We already have a few cases which suggest that these women had been raped before being shot to death," Vladyslav Pirovskyi, once of the Ukrainian forensic doctors who carried out autopsies on residents from Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka killed during Russia's month-long occupation of the area.
He further said, "We can't give more details as my colleagues are still collecting the data and we still have hundreds of bodies to examine. There are many burnt bodies, and heavily disfigured bodies that are just impossible to identify. The face could be smashed into pieces, you can't put it back together, sometimes there's no head at all."
The Guardian quoted him as saying that the bodies of some women they had examined showed signs that the victims had been killed by automatic gunfire, with upwards of six bullet holes in their backs.
A foreign coroner working north of Kyiv also said that some bodies “are in such bad shape that it is not easy to find signs of rapes and sexual abuses. But we are collecting evidence in a few cases of women we believe had been raped before being murdered."
According to The Guardian, following the withdrawal of Russian troops from towns and suburbs around the capital, dozens of women have told police, the media and human rights organisations about atrocities they say they suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers.
The investigators were also reported to have heard testimony of gang-rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint and rapes being committed in front of children.
While Russia has repeatedly denied the allegations, Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denisova has officially documented the cases of 25 women kept in a basement and systematically raped in Bucha. (UNI)