Kremlin Running Filtration Camp In Donetsk, Forcefully Deported Over 700,000 Ukranians To Russia

Ukraine has alleged that Russia is running a filtration camp in the Donetsk region where over 10,000 Ukrainians have been put up. It has also allegedly forcefully deported over 700,000 civilians from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to Russia.

The allegations were raised by Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova. "According to the Russian Federation, more than 700,000 of our citizens have been deported to Russia, according to their estimates, more than 130,000 children," Denisova told Radio Svoboda, a Russian wing of Radio Free Europe.

She added that over 20,000 people are deported to Russia every day, and Ukrainians are in 35 regions of the Russian Federation. Denisova said this fact was confirmed by the Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia, Tatiana Moskalkova.

"Currently, there is a filtration camp in the Donetsk region, where more than 10,000 of our citizens are staying. These are filtration camps in which they force our citizens to cooperate. Learn about their interests and their support for Ukraine or Russia. They will find out if there are acquaintances of law enforcement officers, and then they will be arrested and tortured, and possibly destroyed in this way," Denisova added.

According to her, four filtration camps are being operated in the Penza region of Russia, to which the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk are being deported in February before the start of the war. She alleged such acts were a violation of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Rights.

Denisova added that the people of the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk should be taken to "some third country so that they are in a safe state so that they are not tortured."

These filtration camps are reportedly military tents where Ukrainians are photographed, fingerprinted, and forced to turn over their cellphones, passwords, and identity document. A satellite image by the U.S.-based Maxar Technologies last week offered the first glimpse of one camp in the Russian-controlled village of Bezimenne. Many Ukrainians have also shared harrowing accounts of being taken from their homes and dropped off in a foreign Russian community.

According to a resident, Russian troops stormed into their bomb shelter and ordered all the women and children to get out. They were given no choice. They were also interrogated about whether they had any relatives or friends serving in the Ukrainian army.