Gender equality is an end-to-end policy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs — Kateryna Pavlichenko
This was emphasized by Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Kateryna Pavlichenko during a meeting with the EU Ambassador for Gender and Diversity Stella Ronner-Grubacich.
In addition, Artur Gebal, Head of the Political Department of the EU Delegation to Ukraine, Lennart Lennart Linner, Coordinator for Women, Peace and Security of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden Felix Nyström and others attended the talks.
Ekaterina Pavlichenko informed European partners that since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the number of cases of sexual violence has increased significantly. We are talking about sexual crimes by the Russian occupation forces, as well as an increase in cases of domestic violence:
“Violent actions have become another challenge faced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine. Cases of violent acts committed by representatives of the aggressor state against the civilian population, in particular sexual violence against women, men and children”.
The Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine said that the problem in identifying and fixing such types of crimes as sexual violence in the conditions of war is their high latency, that is, the reluctance of the victims to report it. According to her, the reasons for this are a difficult psychological state, fear and stigmatization, lack of awareness of their rights and possibilities to receive help.
“Taking into account the peculiarities of the approach to the process of fixing the facts of the commission of sexual crimes in the de-occupied territories, on the initiative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, specialized police mobile groups were created, whose activities are aimed at detecting, documenting sexual violence by the Russian military against civilians and providing assistance to the victims”, - noted Kateryna Pavlichenko.
The Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stressed that it is very important for Ukraine to focus on international experience in solving this problem.
In turn, EU Ambassador for Gender and Diversity Stella Ronner-Grubacich said that Ukraine is currently defending not only its own independence, but also defending the security of the entire European Union. According to her, the partners are united in supporting our country, and the problem of sexual violence is also very important for them.
“This is really a fight for European values. We fully support you in this war. That is why we will provide you with as much help as you need. Both in political and humanitarian terms. It is clear that sexual violence is one of the main topics of our meetings. Unfortunately, this problem will increase due to the war in Ukraine. Therefore, we must take all necessary measures to stop this,” said EU Ambassador for Gender and Diversity Stella Ronner-Grubacich.
According to her, it is extremely important that even despite the war, Ukraine ratified the Istanbul Convention.
Ekaterina Pavlichenko noted that international support in this matter is very important for Ukraine, because our country faced many challenges due to the full-scale invasion of Russia.
“We will continue to work in this direction, taking into account the consequences and challenges of today. I would like to express my gratitude for your comprehensive support of Ukraine. Everyone should remember that the war is total violence for our country and we cannot tolerate and silence both the crimes of the Russian military and domestic violence in Ukrainian families,” the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine summed up.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
