United Nations special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, Mariana Katzarova, condemned the violence perpetrated by former Russian convicts against women and children upon their return from Ukraine during a press conference on Monday.

The Special Rapporteur reported that “an estimated 170,000 convicted, violent criminals” who were recruited to fight in Ukraine and “offered pardons and shortened sentences” in exchange for their service have become perpetrators of new violent crimes against women, girls, and children. These crimes include sexual violence and killings, contributing to the rising violence against women in Russia.

Katzarova emphasized that “[t]here is no law in Russia distinctly criminalizing domestic violence or gender-based violence,” noting a particularly detrimental situation in the North Caucuses where women and girls are “being subjected to forced marriages, to so-called honor killings and crimes against honor of their relatives and female genital mutilation.”

Condemning the Russian authorities’ inaction in addressing the situation and failing to outlaw such practices, Katzarova reported that thousands of women die each year from domestic violence. The emerging trend of violence perpetrated by former convicts is connected to an official policy of the Russian Ministry of Defense enacted earlier this year, which permits the recruitment of convicted criminals to the military.

Detailed extensively in her September 2023 report on the human rights situation in Russia, Katzarova stressed “We cannot look at the human rights situation in Russia without seeing the stark link between aggression abroad and repression at home.”