Europe 1 with AFP 5:57 p.m., April 12, 2022

Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday denounced "hundreds of cases of rape" observed in areas previously occupied by the Russian army, "including young underage girls and very small children".

“Almost daily, new mass graves are found,” the Ukrainian president told the Lithuanian parliament.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday denounced "hundreds of cases of rape" observed in areas previously occupied by the Russian army, "including young underage girls and very small children", during the invasion of Ukraine .

"In the areas liberated from the occupiers, the recording and investigation of war crimes committed by Russia continues. Almost daily new mass graves are found," he said, addressing parliament Lithuanian through a video link.

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“Thousands and thousands of victims. Hundreds of cases of torture. We continue to find bodies in the pipes and cellars,” he continued.

"Hundreds of cases of rape have been recorded, including those of underage girls and toddlers. Even a baby! It's scary just to talk about it," said the Ukrainian president.

He mentioned, without going into details, a video sent, according to him, by an identified paratrooper or member of Russian special services, where we see "what he is doing to this baby, how he is torturing him".

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Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda reacted emotionally to these words.

“It is simply impossible to imagine greater horrors: President Zelensky spoke today of a baby being raped,” he said.

Volodymyr Zelensky also deplored that "some EU countries still do not dare to decide when they will even limit Russian hydrocarbon purchases", despite the "massive murders in Boutcha, deportations populations" and the "premeditated destruction of peaceful cities by Russian missiles and bombs".

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Testimonies reported by the media corroborate the fears of NGOs, which point to indications of the use of rape as a "weapon of war".

A Ukrainian woman told AFP that she was raped by two Russian soldiers after they learned that she was the wife of a Ukrainian soldier.