According to local authorities, Russian forces are holding approximately 27,000 Ukrainians in “filtration camps” near the besieged city of Mariupol.
The Mangush-Nikolske-Yalta filtration camps are aimed at preparing Ukrainians for deportation to Russia, according to Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.
The report coincides with signals from the Mariupol City Council and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, which warn that Russians are using screening camps in the Donetsk region from Bezimene to Dokuchaevsk, forcibly forcing civilians there and seizing their documents. .
Russia’s Federal Security Service or the FSB is working to establish the loyalty of Ukrainians in filter camps, such as whether they have worked with law enforcement or joint forces operations, the directorate said. Some reports show that Russians downloaded data from Ukrainians’ phones and took their fingerprints in filter camps before sending them to Russia.
U.S. officials warned in advance of the Russian invasion this year that Russia could gather Ukrainians, send them to camps and seek their disappearance as a way to eliminate resistance.
And just as US intelligence about Russia’s intentions in Ukraine has been clear before, their predictions seem to have been accurate here. More than 45,000 have been deported to Russia since the start of the war, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said.
Russia has long used filtration camps during the war, human rights regulators say. According to Human Rights Watch, Russian witnesses and witnesses tortured, beat and raped Chechen civilians in Chechen filtration camps in 2000, after and during the Chechen wars. In these cases, the fugitives said the Russians used filtration camps as a way to try to “disappear” individuals.
The Biden administration has criticized the camps.
“Every day we see more and more how little Russia respects human rights,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said earlier this month. “I don’t need to clarify what these so-called ‘filter bearings’ are like. It’s chilling and we can’t look away. “
And now, just as the Russian government has denied accusations of Chechnya and concentration camps, the Kremlin is again denying accusations of forcing Ukrainians into camps. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called the reports “lies”.
While it is alleged that Russian forces are gathering civilians in Mariupol for the camps, Ukrainians continue to try to repel Russian forces in Mariupol. Ukraine’s defense ministry said on Monday that Ukrainians still hold certain areas of the city while Russian forces lead the offensive.
But the situation in Mariupol seems increasingly bleak. After weeks of Russian forces wiping the city from land, air and sea, the situation is dire for those who remain. At the beginning of the invasion, Russian forces struck a maternity hospital, sending women and babies to flee for their lives. In recent days, Russian forces have been pursuing the theater, surrounding the city and blocking humanitarian aid, leading to cuts in food and basic supplies. And this weekend, Russian forces called on the Ukrainians to surrender.
If Mariupol falls, it will be the first big city to fall from the Russians.
All that appears to be a small group of soldiers fighting in Azovstal, an iron and steel plant that the Russians said they blocked. The city of Mariupol shared a video in its Telegram account on Monday, which appears to show Russians bombing Azovstal. Women and children are gathering in bomb shelters, Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko said on Monday.
But for now, the Ukrainians are not backing down.
“Mariupol. Unbreakable and disobedient, “Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, told Telegram on Monday.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmihal repeated Andryushchenko.
“The city has not fallen yet,” Schmihal told ABC News.
But Russian forces are already issuing passes to people who remain in besieged Mariupol, which they will have to wear to take to the streets, Andryushchenko said.
“Hundreds of citizens have to stand in line to get a pass, without which next week it will be impossible not only to move between the city’s neighborhoods, but also to be on the streets,” he said, warning that men could be filtered. .
In the coming days, as Russia works to take Mariupol once and for all, Russia could resort to using “riot agents” as tear gas mixed with chemical agents that can weaken Ukrainians, the White House warned at a briefing last year. week.
While Russian forces have faced numerous setbacks recently – failed to capture Kyiv and a large warship that sank last week – Russian forces are already stepping up with a new offensive in eastern Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s senior security official Alexei Danilov.
“This morning, the occupiers tried to break through our defenses along almost the entire front line in the Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions,” Danilov said on Monday.
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