Russian troops ordered Ukrainian women to hang white rags outside homes so soldiers would know who to rape

London, Nov 24 (IANS) Russian troops, including commanders, ordered Ukrainian women to hang white rags outside their homes so that fellow soldiers would know who to rape, investigators have claimed, according to a media report.

Commanders would `encourage and order` the troops to rape women in Russian-occupied towns in Ukraine throughout the war, British criminal lawyer Wayne Jordash, who is assisting Kiev`s war crimes investigations, said, Daily Mail reported.

A Ukrainian woman, from the village of Berestianka near Kiev, described how a Russian soldier ordered her to hang a white rag outside her house, the report said.

In some areas around Kiev, there is evidence that sexual violence committed by Russian troops involved a level of organisation that it "speaks to planning on a more systematic level", Jordash said.

The `systematic` nature of the sexual violence committed by Russian troops provides yet more evidence that Vladimir Putin`s commanders and soldiers have used rape as a weapon of war in the nine months since the invasion began, Daily Mail reported.

Systematic mass rape campaigns in war use forced impregnation as a tool to ethnically cleanse a nation and psychologically traumatise generations of people.

The children born as a result of wartime rape are often stigmatised as they become a "living reminder of the conflict", academics say.

Women across Ukraine have detailed horrific sexual violence and evidence has now emerged showing Russian commanders have known or even ordered a systematic rape campaign.

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