Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, investigators with the National Police of Ukraine have opened pre-trial investigations in 151 criminal cases involving conflict-related sexual violence. Authorities have identified at least 226 victims in these cases. Police recorded the highest numbers in the Kherson, Kyiv, Donetsk, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Slidstvo.Info journalists obtained the figures from the Main Investigation Department of the National Police of Ukraine in response to an information request.
Among the 226 victims is a woman from the village of Zolotyi Kolodiaz in Donetsk Oblast. The suspect in her case is 51-year-old Russian serviceman Sergei Karpilovich. According to investigators, Karpilovich raped the local resident every night for two months. In December 2025, fighters from the Azov unit captured the occupying soldier. Karpilovich is now on trial in Ukraine. It is the first case in which a Russian serviceman has stood trial in a Ukrainian court for sexual violence against a civilian during the full-scale war.
Police data show that of the 151 criminal proceedings involving sexual violence, pre-trial investigations have been completed in 22 cases, and indictments against 30 people have been sent to court. Another 66 members of the Russian army have been charged in absentia.
Most of the suspects remain in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine or in Russia. That reality makes it difficult to bring them to justice in practice.
The National Police notes that the actual number of such crimes and victims may be higher. Not everyone who has survived sexual violence is ready to report it immediately to law enforcement — in part because of the stigma surrounding the subject or fear for relatives who remain in occupied areas.
