The United States estimates that Russian forces have sent “at least several thousand Ukrainians” to be treated in Russia’s so-called filtration centers and “evacuated at least tens of thousands more to Russia or Russian-controlled territory,” the ambassador said. The United States in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Michael Carpenter said on Thursday.
Forced resettlement – and the reported violence people face in so-called filtration centers – is tantamount to war crimes, Carpenter said, according to a transcript of his speech to the OSCE Permanent Council.
“Numerous eyewitness accounts suggest that ‘filtering’ involves beating and torturing people to determine whether they owe even the slightest allegiance to the Ukrainian state,” Carpenter said.
Some backgrounds: An investigation by CNN in April revealed that Russian forces and allied separatist soldiers are taking Mariupol residents to a so-called “filtering center” set up in Bezimen, where they were registered before being sent to Russia, against their will. . The Ukrainian government and local Mariupol officials say tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens have been forcibly deported to the Donetsk People’s Republic and Russia since the start of the war.
“Survivors of this process describe forced travel to multiple destinations through various filtering points in Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine and ultimately across the border into Russia itself,” Carpenter said. “Survivors describe these centers as makeshift camps set up in military tents or civilian infrastructure, such as schools or sports centers. Commercial satellite images show these camps in various locations in southeastern Ukraine. “
The US Mission to the OSCE declined to discuss sources of information, but said it was confident in the assessment and scale of the figures.
According to Carpenter, the victims described an “invasive and humiliating” screening process at these centers.
“Russian soldiers take pictures of victims from different angles, fingerprints and physically examine them for tattoos, check their mobile phones and download their contacts and device data and record their biographical information in various databases … In some cases, Russian soldiers have their passports confiscated , identity documents and mobile phones in general, “Carpenter said.
“Once in Russia, survivors reported that some Ukrainian citizens were allowed to stay with friends and family living in Russia, but people without money or documents boarded trains destined for cities hundreds of miles away to give them work from the Russian authorities, “he added.
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