Ukraine’s deputy defense minister slams sexual abuse in military

A Ukrainian deputy defense minister has castigated “unacceptable” sexual advances to female soldiers by commanders in the military.

The Guardian exposed the plight of female Ukrainian soldiers in its recent report on rampant corruption and rife sexual abuse in the Ukrainian armed forces.

Following the revelations, Hanna Maliar, a deputy defense minister, came out claiming she would pursue any of the commanders who had been credibly accused by a female soldier of sexual abuse.

“I will contact the police and bring the police by the hand to investigate this. Give me all the information; I will personally contact the police. These things are unacceptable,” Maliar said.

The Guardian story said an army commander would order his female subordinates to be intimate with him or be prepared to be sent to psychiatric wards or have their husbands sent to the front lines to perish.

The whistleblower who made the revelations to The Guardian was Ukrainian platoon sergeant, Nadiya Haran, 27.  The deputy defense minister has said she was scheduled to meet with Haran.

Haran told the British newspaper that after discussing the cases with senior officers, she was told to “shut up” and then felt forced to ask to be transferred to another unit. “I left [my brigade] because there was this person high up the food chain who would harass women and I know these women,” she said.

“Some of them are my subordinates who I’m responsible for. They were harassed by the same person who basically told them if they refuse to have sex with him, he’s sending their husbands who were also in the brigade to their deaths.”

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Meanwhile, Ukraine's presidency said in a statement related to corruption that during police inspections of territorial recruitment centers for the armed forces, they had come across cases of corruption.

The statement said the cases “pose a threat to Ukraine's national security and undermine confidence in state institutions.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky has already dismissed “all regional military commissars” over corruption allegations.

In this regard, Zelensky told media that “the system should be run by people who know exactly what war is and why cynicism and bribery at a time of war is high treason.”

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The news regarding the sex scandals and corruption in Ukraine’s military forces comes out as the Kiev regime continues to rally its supporters to fight against Russia, which launched its “special military operation” in Donbas on February 24, 2022 to defend Russia’s territory against NATO’s encroachment, and stop the persecution of the pro-Moscow Russian-speakers in the area at the hand of the Kiev government.

Despite a media-hyped abortive counteroffensive in June, Western officials say it is “extremely, highly unlikely” that Ukrainian forces will make “a progress that would change the balance of this conflict,” CNN quoted a senior Western diplomat.

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