Ukrainian prosecutor says Russia uses rape as a war tactic, calls Putin a war criminal

 On Tuesday, Ukraine's prosecutor general charged Russia with using rape to wage war. He also called Vladimir Putin the "main war criminal of 21st century".

Russia previously denied the targeting of civilians and rejected claims that its forces committed war crimes against Ukraine.

The Kremlin has not yet responded to Reuters' request for comment and dismissed any previous suggestion that Putin was a war criminal.

Prosecutor General Iryna Vediktova visited the devastated city of Irpin, near Kyiv. She stated that Ukraine was gathering information about allegations of torture, rape and other war crimes by Russian forces.

Venediktova stated that the allegations include the rapes of men, women, children, and an elderly woman. When Venediktova was asked if rape was part of a Russian strategy during the war, she said that it was.

She stated, "This is, obviously, to scare civil societies... to do everything (force Ukraine) to capitulate."

She did not give any details about the rape allegations. However, she stated that some victims were still in Ukraine and were afraid to speak out because of Russian forces returning.

Venediktova claimed that Putin was responsible for the events in Ukraine because he was commander-in-chief, Russian armed forces.

She said that Putin is the most dangerous war criminal in the 21st Century, referring to Russian military interventions in Georgia, Russia's Chechnya, Syria, and Ukraine in 2014.

She stated, "If we talk about (the) crime d'agression, we all know who started the war, and that person is Vladimir Putin."

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, dismissed in March a U.S. President Joe Biden's comment that Putin was a war criminal.

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