The Week in Ukraine - 4/23/22

For the remaining civilian residents of Mariupol, the situation remained as bleak at the beginning of the week. Russia continued to block humanitarian aid to the city, and began issuing "passes" to residents that will be required for any Ukrainian leaving their own homes.

Pointless Russian cruelties continued elsewhere, with a rocket attack on a Kharkiv neighborhood killing at least five. There were no further updates on the fate of the crew of the sunken Moskva, with only a tenth or so of the ship's 510-person crew appearing in footage of the assembled survivors.

There were reports that Russia's Uralvogonzavod tank factory shut down production. It will no longer be able to assemble any of T-72 tank (main RU tank) or newer T-90 & T-14 tanks (Armata). The reason given for the shutdown is the lack of imported components-- which is the direct result of Western sanctions which should continue.

A restaurant run by celebrity chef José Andrés’ nonprofit World Central Kitchen in Kharkiv, Ukraine, was destroyed by a Russian missile strike.  One person was killed, and four others wounded.  WCK staff moved its remaining food products and undamaged equipment to a new kitchen location in Kharkiv.  "This is the reality here — cooking is a heroic act of bravery," WCK CEO Nate Mook said.

As Russian forces retreated from various regions of Ukraine, there are now reports coming in of gang rapes, assaults taking place at gunpoint, rapes committed in front of victims’ children, as well as torture and mutilation. There have been several reports of Ukrainian women who were raped and then murdered by Russian forces.

One Ukrainian woman described on camera how multiple Russian fighters raped her after they rolled into her village with tanks. Another reported that two Russian soldiers murdered her husband on their front lawn and then repeatedly raped her in her basement with her 4-year-old son sobbing in a room down the hall. A group of 15 Ukrainian soldiers, all women, had their heads shaved and were forced to undress and squat for hours while in Russian detention. A dead Ukrainian woman was found in a cellar, shot in the head and naked except for a fur coat, with a used condom and condom wrappers around her.

In one of the most abhorrent testimonies, 25 girls and women, ranging from 14 to 24 years old, were locked in a basement and gang-raped repeatedly in Bucha, a city near the capital of Kyiv. Nine of the victims are now pregnant. “Russian soldiers told them they would rape them to the point where they wouldn’t want sexual contact with any man, to prevent them from having Ukrainian children,” said Ukraine’s ombudsman for human rights Lyudmyla Denisova.