Last week has been awash with news of the 28-point peace plan–the latest instalment in the series of plans of the US administration to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Although the key media discussion centred on which punitive conditions may be, or will eventually be, imposed on Ukraine as part of a peace settlement, some of the less frequently discussed bullet points deserve attention.
Under one of the points, "all conflict parties [are to] receive full amnesty for actions during the war and relinquish potential future claims". The plan is likely going to be significantly transformed if it is ever going to become the backbone of the final settlement. But if a blanket amnesty clause is ever going to become part of it, it will create a serious precedent.
A non-exhaustive list of acts that would fall under the blanket amnesty includes the massacres of civilians in Bucha and Irpin, deliberate attacks against civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, abduction of Ukrainian children, torture and sexual violence against the prisoners of war and civilians in the occupied territories–all owing to the Trump administration’s desire for rapid rapprochement with Russia.
The hidden war crime
Some of these acts have been widely publicised, but sexual violence to date has largely remained hidden.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukrainian authorities have documented at least 331 cases of sexual violence by Russian forces in occupied territories and detention sites. The real number is almost certainly much higher.
Human rights reports give a grim impression of the acts that are commonplace in the Russian occupation. In Kherson, Russian forces operated a detention centre that held 400–500 civilians suspected of pro-Ukrainian sympathies.
According to a joint report by a coalition of human rights organisations, including the International Partnership for Human Rights and Truth Hounds, out of 59 survivors interviewed, 36 reported sexualised violence, including genital electrocution, rape, forced nudity, and threats of rape.
Similar patterns emerge among Ukrainian prisoners of war: the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported that 39 of 60 male POWs it interviewed had suffered sexual violence.
These are not isolated atrocities. They reveal a systematic policy of repression. The UN Special Rapporteur on torture underscored this in 2023, describing Russia’s use of torture as "part of state policy" designed to instil fear, extract information, and punish detainees. Sexual violence is integral to this machinery of domination.
The damage of sexual violence goes far beyond the individual act. It aims to break people, humiliate communities, and fracture the social fabric. Against women, it seeks to degrade and dehumanise; against men, to emasculate; and for everyone, it seeks to destroy identity.
Silenced by occupation, forgotten in peace plans
The full scale of sexual violence in Ukraine remains unseen. What we know comes mostly from liberated areas or released prisoners. In territories still under Russian control, survivors have little chance to report abuses. Many civilians describe the fear of renewed occupation as greater than even the dangers of shelling. That fear is inseparable from the terror of sexual violence.
Ukraine has taken steps to address this hidden toll, including establishing a reparations mechanism that offers one-time payments to survivors. But obstacles remain—from re-traumatising interviews to limited psychological support. Recognition and compensation are vital, but without real accountability, justice is incomplete.
And herein lies the danger. In Washington, the discourse has shifted away from accountability to negotiation seeking swift resolution, from justice to political expediency. Funding for war crimes documentation has been cut, and pressure for a "quick peace" has grown. But peace built on impunity is no peace at all. It is a betrayal of survivors and an invitation to future atrocities.
There is a reason why today we discuss the "Korean" and "Finnish" scenarios for Ukraine or why the peace deal in Gaza has allegedly served as extra momentum for the 28-point peace plan for Ukraine: war settlements are crucial not just because they determine the future for the belligerents, but because they shape the perceptions of how wars end for generations to come.
No peace without justice
Today, our perception of what is and is not permissible in conflict has been shaped by the legacy of the International Tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, which provided a belated accountability for the perpetrators of genocide and crimes against humanity. An unjust settlement in Ukraine risks scrapping that legacy in favour of a world where the winners can and will get away with atrocities so long as they can be justified by ideology and perceived political necessity.
Holding Russia accountable at the highest level is essential not only for the people of Ukraine but for the integrity of international law itself. Any peace settlement that offers blanket amnesty for perpetrators of war crimes like torture and sexual violence will cement Trump’s legacy not as a "peacemaker" but as an enabler of war crimes.
Without justice, survivors will be abandoned, impunity will spread, and one of war’s most brutal tools will remain in the shadows, ready to be used again.
