A woman with the flag of Ukraine and the phrase in English “stop raping us” painted on the bare chest burst this Friday on the red carpet of the Cannes Film Festival, in the south of France, in the context of the growing complaints of sexual assaults suffered by Ukrainian women since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The woman, who was also wearing a pantyhose stained with red paint, was quickly removed from the scene by the security services.
At the moment, the action has not been claimed by any organization, according to the AFP news agency.
This action comes after the European Parliament condemned in early May andl use of sexual violence as a “weapon of war” in Ukraine, where Russia launched a military offensive on February 24.
Given this situation, the European legislative body asked the countries that host Ukrainian refugees to provide them with access to gynecological care, contraceptive methods and abortion.
The sexual assaults against the Ukrainian women were also denounced in mid-April by the country’s president, Volodimir Zelenski, who reported “hundreds of cases of rape” found in the areas that had been occupied by the Russian army, “including minor girls and babies “.
Also testimonies collected at the time by various media confirmed what many NGOs feared about the use of rape as a “weapon of war”.