Majority of women, raped in ATO area, die already – experts

The women from Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions are most vulnerable to gender-based violence.

This was announced by project coordinator of the International Charity Foundation “Ukrainian Women’s Fund” Oksana Kvitka, radio Liberty reports.

“Recently in Kramatorsk, we recorded an increase in registered cases of violence by 25%,” she said.

Representative of the NGO “Information and Consultation Women’s Center” Olena Suslova noted that the women in the ATO area were not only subjected to sexual violence but often died as well.

“Those, who have already left the area and are in the safe territory now, told us that the majority of women, who had been raped at the beginning of the conflict, had already died. Rape and sexual violence against women is always one of the methods of warfare in all the conflicts,” Suslova said.

The psychologists say that the violence may be caused by stereotypes and negative information in the media. Even entertaining movies have scenes of violence and aggression that form the appropriate behavior models. The economic and social problems aggravate the problem.