AS Ukrainian women endure the war engulfing their homeland, or seek to flee it, sexual violence is a pervasive threat, according to Colleen Roberts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Moldova.   

The United Nations estimates more than five million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24.

Around 90% are women and children, with the authorities in Kyiv not allowing men aged 18 to 60 to leave the country.

As the conflict and displacement expands, Roberts responds to the most pressing questions about the sexual violence risks facing Ukrainian refugees.

What risks do Ukrainian refugees face?
A number of concerns have been raised, including sexual violence and trafficking. Conflict and displacement can increase risks that already exist for women and bring new ones. 

They’re not necessarily only survivors who’ve experienced gender-based violence (GBV) within Ukraine. It is also about safety for refugees along the way. GBV can happen anywhere.

The longer that refugees are displaced, the more risks there are for gender-based violence for those living within the host community, especially as resources start to run out. There are definitely high risks of GBV for people who are displaced.

The awareness is getting better, the support is getting better. But the risk is still there. We have to make sure we cover all the different areas. We have to be prepared in case of changes in the dynamics of displacement and influx. 

Especially when you look at trafficking: we focus a lot on the border, but people can be trafficked from anywhere. You can experience harm anywhere. 

In this response, the online risks are complex, that requires specific technical capacity to really be able to address. 

You can go on Facebook or Tinder or other social media, and you can find men putting advertisements for Ukrainian women to come and stay with them. 

Who is usually behind the violence?
The perpetration is about gender, the perpetration is around power differentials and the capacity to use that power in a way that’s harmful especially towards women and girls, so it can be anyone.

The important thing is that whenever you have conflict situations and militarisation, which are deeply gendered, women and girls are at risk and I don’t think we can say it’s this person or this person.

Even people who offer support could be perpetrators. Anyone could be a perpetrator, even those who could appear to be providing support.

Who is most at risk?
There have been very few cases that have been reported. But women and girls have raised the concerns that they have. We asked them about what some of the main concerns are, what safety risks they had, and they mentioned gender-based violence and trafficking.

If you hear of one single case of sexual violence in the community that you live in or happening to a community member, that creates fear and that creates concern.

Gender-based violence is one of the most high-risk protection concerns in this response, and it is affecting the most vulnerable refugees, like women, especially women travelling on their own, girls, like young women, adolescent girls, also people coming from specific groups such as Roma people or women with underlying mental health conditions.

People are not always seeking support. We need to understand what the barriers are. The more we can improve the access to the support, the more we’ll see the extent of this problem, because I think it’s very much there. – AFP pic, April 27, 2022.