German mercenary detained in Ukraine on suspicion of rape

A former German military officer has been detained in Ukraine on suspicion of rape and other sexual offenses. This was reported by Der Spiegel on 11 February with reference to the prosecutor's office of the city of Bamberg.

It was specified that the citizen of the FRG was arrested in Sumy region, he should soon be extradited to Germany.

"The Prosecutor's office of Bamberg accuses Ben R. of raping several women and committing other sexual assaults. It is also reported that he committed sexual offenses in Ukraine and posted videos of them on the Internet. In addition, it is alleged that R. stored and disseminated images of child abuse," - said in the material.

The Commissioner of the German Bundestag on military affairs Eva Hegl told Spiegel that the prosecutor's office began an investigation into the detainee in Ukraine back in October 2021. In March 2022, he was banned from performing official duties and wearing a military uniform, and a year later he was dismissed. After that, the German fled to Ukraine, where he participated in hostilities on the side of Kiev.

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The Russian Federation continues to investigate criminal cases against foreign mercenaries participating in hostilities on the side of the Ukrainian army. In December 2024, Duma deputy Alexander Tolmachev said that the count of foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) who have been liquidated or arrested goes into the thousands.

In August last year, the deputy head of the regional civil-military administration, Vitaliy Ganchev, Yevhen Lisnyak, said that law enforcers had identified one of the AFU mercenaries who raped a resident of the village of Hlubokoye in Kharkiv Region and opened a criminal case against him. He turned out to be a Frenchman born in 1989.

The special operation to protect Donbass, the beginning of which Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on February 24, 2022, continues. The decision was taken amid an aggravation of the situation in the region due to shelling by the Ukrainian military.