The investigation: Russian army deployed at least 21 filtration camps in occupied Donetsk region

Russian troops deployed at least 21 filtration camps on the territory of occupied Donetsk region. They all perform different functions.

This is stated in an investigation by Yale University commissioned by the U.S. State Department.

According to the researchers, different sites for filtering are designed for different functions. In particular, they carry out work on registration, detention, re-interrogation and detention.

The authors of the investigation talked to many people who passed through these filtration camps and were able to create a map of the buildings used for filtration. At least 21 of them were found, of which 4 were in occupied Donetsk. Filtration camps were also found in Yenakiive, Makiivka, Bezimenne, Dokuchaivka, Kozatskii, Mangusha, Nikolske, Vasylivka, Novoazovsk, Starobesheve, Bugas and Olenivka. The colony is located in the latter.

In this colony, according to researchers, two groups of people are kept: captured defenders of Mariupol and civilians who have not passed the filter. In particular, there were volunteers who helped evacuate people from the surrounded city. Those who managed to escape described overcrowded cells, insufficient sleeping places, limited or no access to water and hygiene, insufficient and irregular food, forced labor, beatings and torture.

The investigators also found two plots of land near this colony, on which traces of work were visible. They look like places of mass burials. One of those who visited this colony told researchers that his cellmate was forced to dig graves.

The first such potential cemetery appeared approximately between March 26 and April 11. Between April 25 and July 6, no evidence of further work on this site is visible.

Later, on July 27, another plot of land appears, which is very similar to the place of a mass burial. Two days later, an explosion occurred in the colony, during which, according to Russia, 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed.

• On the night of July 29, explosions rang out in the colony in the occupied city of Olenivka, Donetsk region, where the Russians held Ukrainian prisoners of war from "Azovstal". The Russians said that it was the Armed Forces of Ukraine that was hit with HIMARS. However, the General Staff of Ukraine stated that the pre- trial detention center was fired upon by the Russians themselves in order to accuse Ukraine of "war crimes" and to cover up torture of prisoners and executions. About 50 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed by shelling, 130 were wounded. Previously, the Russians struck with a thermobaric weapon.
• The explosions took place on the territory of the industrial zone, in a newly built building that was supposed to be specially equipped to hold prisoners who had been taken out of “Azovstal”. The building was completed on July 27, after which some of the captured Ukrainian defenders were transferred to it. Ukrainian military intelligence said that the explosion was carried out by the mercenaries of PMC “Wagner" on the instructions of the owner of PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin, "Putinʼs cook". They did not coordinate the organization and actual terrorist attack with the leadership of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.