Annie Hoey (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I also compliment the Cathaoirleach and the Ceann Comhairle on this morning's joint sitting and on their statements in particular. April is sexual assault awareness month. As we know, rape and sexual assault are considered war crimes and breaches of international humanitarian law. Women across Ukraine are grappling with the threat of rape as a weapon of war as growing evidence of sexual violence emerges from areas retaken from retreating Russian forces. The world was horrified on Sunday by a picture taken by the photographer Mikhail Palinchak on a highway approximately 20 km outside of Kyiv in which the bodies of one man and three women were to be seen piled under a blanket. The women were naked and their bodies had partially been burned. These harrowing images add to a mounting body of evidence that summary executions, rape and torture have been used against civilians in areas under Russian control since the Kremlin launched its invasion on 24 February. We heard at first hand from President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, about what is happening on the ground and the realities of the brutal Russian army.

Particularly difficult for many of us to comprehend is the scale of the sexual violence. As Russian troops have withdrawn from towns and suburbs around the capital to refocus their war efforts on the east, women and girls have come forward to tell the police, media and human rights organisations of atrocities they have suffered at the hands of Russian soldiers. Gang rapes and assaults taking place at gunpoint and rapes committed in front of children are among the grim testimonies that have been collected by investigators. The president of La Strada Ukraine, a charity that supports survivors of trafficking, domestic violence and sexual assault, has said the charity has received several calls to their emergency hotline from women and girls seeking assistance but that, in most cases, it has been impossible physically to get to them. We know rape is an under-reported crime and stigmatised even in peaceful and normal times, so what we are hearing about now is likely to be merely the tip of the iceberg. There are also reports from one woman, Antonina Medvedchuk, who said that when she woke up to the sound of bombing, her first thought was to get scissors, condoms and contraception. In between the bombs, she would go looking for emergency contraception rather than an emergency first aid kit. We also need to think of the situation of people fleeing to Poland, where reproductive health services are impossible to access. This is coming at women and children in Ukraine from every direction.

We know the trauma caused by the use of rape as a military tactic will lead to deep suffering across Ukrainian society for years to come. Rape, sexual assault and violence never leave you. I know this to be all too true. While there may be remedies in the future via the justice system or international courts for the war crime of rape, this will do little to provide comfort to the women and girls currently facing the reality of rape and sexual violence upon their bodies. Women and children always feel the worst brunt of war and those in Ukraine are no different. During this sexual assault awareness month, I think of the women and girls in Ukraine who are facing the most horrific of circumstances.