The U.N. has documented more than 1,000 cases of sexual violence in Russia’s war against Ukraine. It attributes 89% to Russia, and most of the victims are men.

On September 18, the United Nations published a report on conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine, based on interviews conducted by its monitoring mission from the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion through July 31, 2026. Meduza summarizes the report’s key findings.

Warning: This text contains descriptions of torture.

In all, the U.N. documented 1,004 cases of sexual violence, including 20 that took place before February 24, 2022, but had not been recorded earlier. A single “case,” according to the report, can involve repeated acts of violence, since many victims simply cannot recall how many times they were assaulted. The U.N. figures cover violence against civilians and against prisoners.

The forms of sexual violence the U.N. documented during the war include gang rape, rape, torture that mutilates the genitals, forced stripping, beatings of naked victims, and threats of violence.

Russia is responsible for 892 of the documented cases (89%). The perpetrators were soldiers and officers of the FSB security service and the FSIN prison service. According to the report, they used violence during arrests and interrogations, while victims were in custody, and while preparing them for prisoner exchanges or release. Russian authorities, the U.N. said, have taken no apparent steps to prevent such violence or investigate it.

Most victims of sexual violence attributed to Russia were men (725 cases). They were often subjected to sexual violence during torture with electric shocks from field telephones: the terminals of a field telephone’s ringer generator are attached to the victim’s genitals, delivering an electric shock. This form of torture was documented in 155 cases. In 246 cases, victims were beaten on the genitals; in 372, they were forced to strip. Only 38 cases involved threats of violence alone. One person interviewed told the U.N. about being tortured with a shovel handle, another with a baton, and a third with cell keys.

The oldest victim was an 82-year-old woman, and the youngest was a four-year-old girl. As examples, the U.N. press release cites several cases from 2022 in which soldiers raped civilians in Kherson and the Kyiv region — information that has already appeared in earlier U.N. releases.

Ukraine is responsible for 11% of the cases. The perpetrators were primarily officers of the SBU security service, soldiers, and prison staff.

The U.N. said the number of cases may be far higher. The monitoring mission worked only in territory controlled by Ukraine. And even when cases were documented, some victims refused to have information about their cases made public.