“To date, more than 500 thousand Ukrainians, including 121,000 children were forcibly transferred to Russia’s territory. Such actions of the Russian invaders can be qualified as kidnapping and require a resolute response by the international community, primarily from the relevant UN agencies,” Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, stated during the meeting of the UN Security Council.
“In the Russia-controlled territories, including the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, the invaders build filtration camps and torture chambers. They continue to abduct representatives of local authorities and activists (…) The Russian occupiers continue to forcibly transfer Ukrainians from the occupied territories of Donbas to Russia, as nazi Germany once did. Filtration camps are an integral element of their transfer,” Kyslytsya stressed.
According to the Ambassador, the persons destined for “deportation” are previously held by Russian troops in so-called filter camps.
“At least 20 thousand Ukrainians are kept in filtration camps on the Mangush-Nikolske-Yalta line, about 5-7 thousand people – in the filtration camp in the village of Bezymenna, Donetsk region,” the diplomat informed.
He also referred to the tragic situation in Mariupol, besieged by Russian troops.
“The situation in Mariupol remains the most critical. Thousands of civilians are still in the city. Hundreds of them, including children, have taken shelter in the Azovstal plant. They need immediate safe evacuation and the Russian forces are well aware of this. Instead, the Russians deny all requests from the Ukrainian side, world leaders and the UN high officials for evacuation corridors for civilians,” Ambassador said.
Similar data on so-called filter camps were transmitted by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday.
“Putin’s playbook doesn’t change. At filtration camps in Chechnya, Russia beat, tortured and executed civilians. We stand with Ukraine,” as pointed out in a statement by the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, Ukraine on Facebook.
Read also the whole Sergiy Kyslytsya’s statement ⤵️