Andrew Chakhoyan

Andrew Chakhoyan is an Academic Director at the University of Amsterdam and a former U.S. government official at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. A Ukrainian-American, he studied at Harvard Kennedy School and Donetsk State Technical University.

🇺🇦-American in NL🇳🇱 Harvard Kennedy School alum. Words in Newsweek, Politico, The Hill, Süddeutsche Zeitung, NZZ, NY Post, Kyiv Independent.

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim” – Elie Wiesel #StandWithUkraine

Oct 31, 2026

russia’s war will engulf all of Europe if heinous war crimes continue to be met with condolences.

The moscow-centered terrorist organization first violated Ukraine’s borders 12 YEARS AGO.

Europe’s failure to help 🇺🇦 defeat the aggressor decisively has only whetted russia’s appetite for more war.

https://substack.com/@andrewchakhoyan/note/c-374527200?r=88llws

Trump sees communists everywhere. Democrats, liberals, anyone who disagrees with him.

Then a kid shows up at the White House wearing what appears to be a Soviet military cap, complete with a hammer and sickle.

His parents, wittingly or otherwise, dressed him in the symbols of a murderous empire, whose successor is attempting yet another genocide in Ukraine RIGHT NOW.

You couldn’t make this shit up. 🤦🏻‍♂️

………….

For russia to wage war, for russia to attempt genocide is par for the course 

The pursuit of peace and prosperity contradicts the existence of the extractive moscow-centered terrorist organization 

Those ideas and ideals are simply incompatible with the ruscist culture.

…………….

Comment from :

Mykhailo Rohoza

🇺🇦 Ukrainian veteran, disabled.Father of 3.

It turns out that the person who dressed his children as Russian monsters for Halloween at the White House was Stephen Miller, Trump’s homeland security adviser, a conspiracy theorist, Nazi, racist, and opponent of military aid to Ukraine (although, on that last point, they’re all pretty much the same).

Now, a clarification regarding the supposedly Russian military uniform worn by Miller’s son. The boy was wearing a Soviet military cap, a patch featuring the insignia of Russia’s tank forces, and camouflage resembling the U.S. Marine Corps’ MARPAT pattern. In other words, it wasn’t an actual Russian military uniform but a peculiar hybrid costume assembled from different elements.

Unlike the boy, whose military outfit consisted of mismatched pieces, Miller’s daughter’s costume appeared to follow a fairly consistent Russian folk style.

……….…..

MYKHAILO ROHOZA

Russia’s War Against Ukrainians: Rape, Sexual Torture, Children, and the Crimes the World Must Never Forget

More than 1,000 documented cases of conflict-related sexual violence. Ukrainian women, children, and prisoners of war have suffered horrific abuse. 

MYKHAILO ROHOZA

---

Russia’s War Against Ukrainians: Rape, Sexual Torture, Children, and the Crimes the World Must Never Forget

21+ | WARNING: This article contains disturbing descriptions of sexual violence, torture, and crimes against children. Intended for adult readers.

There are crimes that destroy buildings. There are crimes that wipe entire cities off the map. And then there are crimes designed to destroy something even more personal: a human being’s dignity, bodily autonomy, and sense of safety. For more than four years, the world has watched Russia bomb Ukrainian cities, destroy hospitals, deport civilians, and kill innocent people. But behind the photographs of ruined homes and burning streets lies another reality that receives far less attention.

Rape. Gang rape. Sexual torture. Genital mutilation. Forced nudity. Threats of castration. Sexual violence against children. All of these appear in investigations of crimes committed during Russia’s invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory. Many have been independently verified by United Nations investigators. Others, including horrifying accounts published in 2022 by Ukraine’s former Human Rights Commissioner Liudmyla Denisova, remain unverified or disputed. Yet the facts already established are more than enough to reveal the scale of this tragedy.

More Than a Thousand Documented Cases

On September 18, 2026, the United Nations published a major report on conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine. Investigators documented 1,004 cases between February 24, 2022, and July 31, 2026. Approximately 89 percent of the verified cases were attributed to Russian authorities, including military personnel, prison officials, and security services. The documented violations included rape, gang rape, sexual assault, genital mutilation, forced nudity, electric shocks applied to the genitals, and other forms of sexual humiliation.

And these are only the cases investigators were able to establish and verify. The actual number of victims remains unknown. Sexual violence is among the most underreported crimes. Survivors fear retaliation, public judgment, humiliation, and consequences for their families. Many remain in occupied territories or Russian detention facilities that independent investigators cannot access. Some victims will never be able to tell their stories.

The youngest rape survivor mentioned during the UN’s September briefing was a four-year-old girl. The oldest was an 82-year-old woman. Both cases were attributed to Russian personnel. Think about those ages. Four years old and eighty-two years old. A little girl whose life had barely begun, and an elderly woman who should have been able to spend her remaining years in peace. Both became victims of sexual violence during Russia’s war against Ukraine. These are not anonymous social media posts. They are findings presented by international investigators.

The Horrifying Testimonies Published by Liudmyla Denisova

In the spring of 2022, as Ukrainian forces liberated occupied communities in the Kyiv region, reports began emerging of crimes whose cruelty shocked the public. Ukraine’s then-Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Liudmyla Denisova, published accounts of sexual violence allegedly committed by Russian soldiers against women, children, and elderly people. Some of these stories were so horrifying that they were almost impossible to comprehend.

Denisova reported alleged rapes of infants, two-year-old children, schoolgirls, and teenagers. According to her statements, Russian soldiers had sexually assaulted children in front of their parents, and some young victims had reportedly died from their injuries. In May 2022, she described an alleged crime in the Kherson region involving two-year-old twin boys who, according to the report she received, had been sexually assaulted by Russian soldiers and subsequently died. Other accounts she published involved infants, a three-year-old boy, and girls aged twelve and fifteen.

Earlier, in April, Denisova described an alleged case in Bucha involving a fourteen-year-old girl who, according to her statement, had been gang-raped by Russian soldiers and become pregnant. She also reported an alleged sexual assault against an eleven-year-old boy in the presence of his mother. These accounts caused horror and outrage far beyond Ukraine, forcing people to confront what might have happened behind closed doors in communities where armed occupiers exercised almost unlimited power over civilians.

The reliability of several of Denisova’s specific accounts was later questioned. An investigation by Ukrainska Pravda identified problems with how testimony received through a psychological assistance hotline had been collected and verified. Investigators were unable to independently confirm some of the reported incidents, including the alleged deaths of the two-year-old twins. Ukraine’s then-Prosecutor General, Iryna Venediktova, also stated that necessary supporting materials for some of Denisova’s public allegations had not been provided to investigators. Denisova denied fabricating the stories and defended her actions as an effort to draw international attention to sexual crimes.

These particular incidents therefore cannot be presented as independently established facts. But such allegations deserve investigation rather than automatic dismissal. Especially when numerous other acts of sexual violence committed by Russian military personnel against Ukrainian civilians, including children, have already been independently verified by international investigators.

Ukrainian Prisoners of War: Sexual Torture Behind Prison Walls

---

One of the darkest chapters of this war concerns the treatment of Ukrainian soldiers captured by Russian forces. UN investigators have repeatedly documented sexual violence against prisoners of war, including beatings, forced nudity, sexual assault, threats of castration, and electric shocks applied to their genitals. These crimes occurred during capture, interrogation, transportation between detention facilities, and imprisonment. Some prisoners experienced repeated torture in different facilities, while others were humiliated in front of fellow detainees, turning violence into a deliberate instrument of psychological pressure.

It is important to understand that sexual violence during war is not directed exclusively against women. Many of the documented victims of Russian abuses are men, including Ukrainian servicemen. Imagine a soldier who survived artillery bombardments, drone attacks, and months of brutal fighting, only to become completely defenseless in captivity before people who control his food, movement, medical care, and very chance of survival. Under such conditions, sexual torture becomes a method of punishment, intimidation, forced confession, and destruction of human dignity. Its consequences can haunt survivors for the rest of their lives.

In October 2024, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that torture committed by Russian authorities amounted to crimes against humanity. Investigators identified recurring methods of abuse and evidence of a coordinated state policy of torture. Sexual violence was part of this documented system of mistreatment. This means investigations must examine not only the direct perpetrators but also the possible responsibility of commanders, prison administrators, security officials, and others who knew about the abuses, issued orders, or allowed the crimes to continue.

Women and Girls Under Russian Occupation

For Ukrainian women and girls, Russian occupation meant danger even inside their own homes. Armed soldiers controlled streets, established checkpoints, conducted searches, detained civilians, and entered residential buildings. International investigators documented cases of rape, gang rape, and other forms of sexual violence committed by Russian military personnel in occupied territories.

A UN report published in June 2025 described the case of a seventeen-year-old girl from the occupied part of the Kherson region. In March 2024, according to investigators, two Russian soldiers abducted her directly from the street and gang-raped her. She was only seventeen. She should have been thinking about education, friendships, love, and her future. Instead, she endured a crime that no human being should ever experience.

The September 2026 UN report also documented sexual violence against civilians outside detention facilities. Investigators identified 95 survivors in this category, predominantly women and girls. Among them were 57 rape survivors, fifteen of whom had been subjected to gang rape. Once again, these are only verified cases. Behind every account is a person whose life has been changed forever. Some survivors suffer severe physical injuries, while others struggle for years with psychological trauma, fear, anxiety, and an inability to trust others.

Sexual Violence as an Instrument of Terror

Sexual violence during armed conflict can be used as an instrument of intimidation, punishment, humiliation, coercion, and control over a population. Imagine an ordinary Ukrainian family living in an occupied village. Armed Russian soldiers patrol the streets. Neighbors are taken away for interrogation, and some never return. People are afraid to speak openly, express their opinions, or even trust acquaintances. Nobody knows what the next knock on the door might bring: a search, an arrest, a beating, or sexual violence.

A mother fears for her daughter. A husband worries about his wife. Parents try desperately to protect their children. Families of captured soldiers do not know whether their loved ones are alive, whether they are being tortured, or whether they will ever return home. Fear spreads far beyond the immediate victims, engulfing entire communities. That is why repeated sexual violence in Russian detention facilities and occupied territories demands investigation not only into individual crimes but also into the systems that allowed them to happen.

Could These Crimes Constitute Genocide?

International law recognizes rape and other forms of sexual violence as potential war crimes. When committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population, with the necessary legal elements established, they may also constitute crimes against humanity. Under certain circumstances, sexual violence can constitute an act of genocide if there is proof of specific intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a protected national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.

Not every rape committed during war automatically constitutes genocide. However, sexual violence can be a means of inflicting serious bodily or mental harm on members of a protected group. Investigators must establish the circumstances of these crimes, identify perpetrators and commanders, examine orders, and determine possible criminal intent. But even without a final legal classification, the gravity of the crimes already documented is undeniable.

Peace Must Not Mean Impunity

One day, Russia’s war against Ukraine will end. There may be negotiations, ceasefires, international agreements, and ceremonial announcements. Politicians will shake hands in front of cameras and declare the beginning of a new historical era. But what will happen to the survivors? To the women who were raped? To the men subjected to sexual torture in captivity? To the children who experienced abuse and must live with its consequences?

Will the perpetrators be identified? Will commanders who ordered or tolerated torture face justice? Will survivors receive medical care, psychological support, and access to legal remedies? Or will their suffering become an inconvenient detail that governments prefer to forget in the name of restoring diplomatic relations?

A ceasefire does not erase rape. A peace agreement does not undo torture. Reopening embassies does not restore a child’s stolen childhood. Political reconciliation cannot replace criminal accountability. The international community must demand independent investigations, preservation of evidence, protection of survivors, and prosecution of those responsible.

The World Must Remember

War is often measured in kilometers of territory captured or liberated, numbers of destroyed military vehicles, and ruined buildings. But human suffering cannot be measured through military statistics. Behind every documented case of sexual violence stands a human being. Someone’s daughter, son, mother, or father. Someone who had dreams, hopes, and plans for the future before another person’s violence changed their life forever.

UN investigations confirm that sexual violence has been a serious and recurring feature of abuses committed by Russian personnel during the war against Ukraine. Survivors include women, men, children, civilians, and prisoners of war. Their suffering must never be minimized, exploited for political spectacle, or forgotten.

One day, the war will end. But the responsibility to seek justice must not end with it. Because a world that forgets its victims makes it easier for perpetrators to escape accountability.

—

About the Author: Why I Continue Writing

My name is Mykhailo Rohoza. I am fifty years old, a Ukrainian war veteran, a husband, and a father of four. I served in Ukraine’s 54th Separate Mechanized Brigade in 2015–2016. Russian aggression destroyed our home in eastern Ukraine, and tomorrow, October 31, 2026, marks exactly ten years since a drunk driver nearly killed me in Lithuania.

I suffered more than twenty fractures, spent almost five years bedridden, and continue to live with chronic pain and severe mobility limitations. Today, I use a wheelchair when leaving home. We live in Canada, where my wife, Olena, works to support our family of six.

Despite everything that has happened, I continue writing about Ukraine because this war is not an abstract geopolitical discussion to me. When I read about Ukrainian prisoners of war being tortured, I think about the men I once served alongside. When I learn about crimes against children, I think about my own children.

I started publishing on Substack to earn a living through my own work, help support my family, and continue telling the world about Ukraine. If you believe my writing matters, please consider supporting me with a subscription. A free subscription helps my articles reach new readers, while a paid subscription directly supports my work and helps cover groceries, electricity, heating, and other essential expenses. You can start for free and upgrade to a paid subscription whenever you wish.

SUBSCRIBE TO MY SUBSTACK:

https://mykhailorohoza.substack.com