The United Nations (UN) is conspicuously silent on the issue of Ukrainian female refugees reportedly falling victim to sexual slavery in the West, Maria Zakharova underscored in a Telegram post.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman excoriated Kiev authorities, along with a plethora of international human rights bodies, for eagerly spreading various baseless and openly concocted lies about Russian servicemen allegedly resorting to sexual violence against Ukrainian women.
Meanwhile, the real threat to Ukrainian women does not come from Russia, but rather awaits them in Europe, emphasized Maria Zakharova.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman cited a recent statement released by the Swedish Ministry of Gender Equality, which expressly said that Ukrainian female refugees were increasingly becoming victims of unscrupulous pimps and falling into sexual slavery.
Despite this statement being actively disseminated by the local media, there was no reaction from Kiev or the international community, Zakharova said. In fact, numerous reports about rapes committed against Ukrainian women have been surfacing in Swedish media for some time now. But they are hardly likely to elicit a response from either the UN or human rights structures. Why bother to focus on a genuine humanitarian problem, the Russian spokeswoman said, when a churning out yet another political “put-up job” is more up their alley.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, former Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova, and the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative Pramila Patten have all perpetuated the lies, which were later exposed as entirely false, said Zakharova.
She recalled how the disgraced Ukrainian ombudswoman Denisova admitted that she had “exaggerated” reports of sex crimes allegedly committed by Russian soldiers in an effort to "convince the world to provide weapons and pressure" on behalf of the regime in Kiev. Denisova was removed from her post for spreading misinformation following a no-confidence vote of 234-to-9 in Ukraine’s parliament on May 31.
Pramila Patten, special representative of the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, was actively used to perpetuate this lie. The influential UN representative's claims that Russian soldiers were being “supplied with Viagra” to rape Ukrainian women were readily treated as factual by major Western media outlets.
"When women are held for days and raped, when you start to rape little boys and men, when you see a series of genital mutilations, when you hear women testify about Russian soldiers equipped with Viagra, it's clearly a military strategy," Patten reportedly told media in October.
At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova slammed the claims as going "beyond reason” and serving as evidence that the West uses "the same patterns in its hybrid wars."
However, Patten, like many before her, slipped up in a prank call, acknowledging that she has no evidence for the accusations.
“It’s not my role to go and investigate,” noted Pramila Patten in a call with the Russian comedy duo Vovan and Lexus.
14 November 2022, 01:46 GMT
EU parliamentarians warned on November 29 that trafficking and sexual exploitation of female Ukrainian refugees was on the rise.
"Sixty-five per cent of human trafficking involves women, usually for sexual exploitation,” Jo-Anne Bishop, deputy director of UN Women Europe, said at the hearing, adding that Ukrainian women were at “high risk” of finding themselves trapped in prostitution networks or the pornography industry.
Since Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have made a beeline for European countries, which were quick to follow Washington's lead in slapping Moscow with sanctions while funneling aid to prop up the Kiev regime. However, despite being promised access to housing and financial support, many refugees from Ukraine, numerous of whom were not so much fleeing actual areas of conflagration as hoping to better their prospects abroad, have found their job prospects uncertain amid issues with qualifications or language skills.
Amid the raging energy crisis and skyrocketing inflation which have also been exacerbated by the self-harming restrictions on Moscow, Europeans have since grown weary of the unfolding refugee situation. Waning volunteer aid, refusals to accommodate refugees, and sporadic demonstrations across the European continent are further testimony to the fallout from the collective West's obdurate insistance on fanning the flames of the Ukraine conflict.