Invading Russian forces started forcibly sending Ukrainians to filtration camps from the occupied part of the Donbas before Kremlin despot Vladmir Putin ordered a renewed invasion of the neighboring country.
About 90,000 Ukrainians were deported from the occupied parts of the easternmost regions of Luhansk and Donetsk on Feb. 19 to internment camps in Russia. However, the international community didn’t pay due attention to the moves, human rights ombudswoman Lyudmila Denisova told Livyi Bereh newspaper in Kyiv.
“Then we appealed to everyone, including international human rights organizations, the UN, but no one paid attention to it,” she said.
The practice has continued since the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, she added, with invading Russian forces deporting people from fully or partly occupied cities like Mariupol to Crimea, which Russia seized in 2014, or to other areas beyond the the Kyiv government’s control.
Ukrainians deported to Russia have had Russian passports issued to them against their will, she said separately on her Telegram channel. About 12,000 have been forcibly issued so far.
Denisova said the imposition of passports “is a direct violation of the Geneva Conventions.”
Those who’ve been deported were asked if they are for or against Russia and whether they have relatives in government-controlled Ukraine, she added. “Their phones were examined,” Denisova said too.
There may now be more than 600,000 forcibly deported Ukrainians, of whom 117,000 are children, Denisova said.
The Kyiv Post couldn’t independently verify this information.
Media reports of Russia’s pre-invasion plans cited Western intelligence saying that internment camps were to be set up of targeted Ukrainians.
On Feb. 21, three days before the renewed invasion, London-based The Guardian cited a letter sent by the U.S. to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet warning of a “human rights catastrophe” that would entail “targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture.”
The letter furthermore allegedly stated that “identified Ukrainians were to be killed or sent to camps.”
