Wikipedia? Seriously? Why have there been no ICC indictments against Russia for such war crimes? The only thing that they have charged Putin with is forced transportation of children, which is a bullshit charge because they were removing children from an active war zone where they were bombarded every day by Ukrainian Nazis, AND STILL ARE.
These allegations of rape are a common meme. The Ukrainians used this against Russia in early 2022 in order to "shock" the Western countries into sending more aid money and weapons to Ukraine.
Please read about Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsman for human rights, who was fired for lying about what happened in Bucha. She admitted that she made up the stories in order to “shock" the West and get them to provide aid and weapons to Ukraine
In fact, she cited an example where Italy was refusing to send weapons to Ukraine until she told the Italian parliament details of horrible rapes at Bucha, and the Italians changed their mind:
"I was trying to prove (and the media agreed with me) why it was necessary to talk about war crimes. Because, for example, when I spoke at the Italian parliament’s international affairs committee meeting, I could hear and see this fatigue from Ukraine, you know? I spoke about terrible things to push them somehow to make decisions that Ukraine and the Ukrainian people needed.”
Consortium News also covered Bucha.
This article is also interesting because it quotes what Zelensky himself said about Bucha:
To start with, the extreme nature of the crimes alleged in Bucha were vivid from the outset. Volodymyr Zelenskyy described killing, rape and torture, saying Russian forces “killed entire families,” crushed civilians with tanks, cut off limbs and slashed throats. “Women were raped and killed in front of their children. Their tongues were pulled out,” the Ukrainian President said.
When I reread this today, I was struck by the similar nature of Zelensky’s words and what Israel has accused Hamas of doing.
It seems that lying in the most horrific ways is a tried and true technique for garnering support, sympathy, etc. from a reluctant or sceptical audience. I personally do not believe all the stories of horrific Hamas rapes. For one thing, the timing is too suspect - 100’s of outlets all reported on it, all at once, many weeks after October 7. Even Hillary Clinton weighed in - as if she is in any way credible about sexual assault crimes. Also, the first reports issued by Israel came from a woman Israel had designated to present the “evidence” - a lawyer named Cochav Elkayam-Levy who has proven herself to be an Israeli version of Lyudmyla Denisova,
