Courtney Austrian, the deputy head of the US mission to the OSCE, said that the United States had discovered at least 18 camps that the Russians had set up to detain and forcibly deport Ukrainians to the Russian Federation.
The New York Times writes about it.
She added that Moscow seems to have been preparing these filtration camps even before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"At the moment, at least 18 filtering sites on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border have been identified," Austrian said.
Journalists from the New York Times and many other media have numerous testimonies from deportees about interrogations, beatings, torture and disappearances. After the filtration camps, Ukrainians were sent to cities across Russia — often to remote regions near China or Japan.
US data indicate that Russian officials were preparing for such filtering even before the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“Russian officials likely created lists of Ukrainian civilians deemed a threat to Russian control over Ukraine for detention and filtering. Including anyone with Ukrainian views, such as politicians and activists, as well as security service personnel," she said.
Courtney Austrian emphasized that all those responsible for the forced deportation of Ukrainians to Russia will be identified and prosecuted for violating international law.
- In early June, former ombudsman Liudmyla Denisova stated that the Russians had forcibly deported about 1.5 million people to the Russian Federation. About 300,000 of them are children.