The Russian government has“Interrogated,detention and forced deportation” of 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes into Russian territory, often to isolated regions of the Far East, said the US Secretary of State. Antony J. Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday.
“The illegal transfer and deportation of protected persons is a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians and is a war crime,” Mr. Blinken said.
Mr Blinken noted that he made the statement on the eve of the Ukraine Accountability Conference, to be held on Thursday in The Hague. Conference website says its purpose is “to ensure that war crimes committed during the war in Ukraine go unpunished.” Its hosts are the Dutch government, the Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Court and the European Commission.
Russia acknowledges that 1.5 million Ukrainians are currently in Russia, but insists that they have been evacuated for their own safety.
Ukrainian officials have long sounded the alarm about Russia expulsionwith President Volodymyr Zelensky last month description they are considered “one of Russia’s most horrific war crimes.” Since Russia began invading Ukraine, he said, deportations have included more than 200,000 children.
Testimony provided to The New York Times and other news outlets of deportees fleeing Russia included descriptions of the filtering sites and accounts of the interrogation, beatings, and torture of those with alleged ties to Ukraine’s armed forces, and about disappearances.
European officials described filter sites set up as schools, sports centers and cultural institutions in parts of Ukraine recently seized by Russian forces.
From those locations, many Ukrainians were transported to destinations across Russia – often to areas far from Ukraine, near China or Japan, according to testimonies.
Several U.S. officials have previously raised concerns about expulsionbut give only vague evaluations of the scale.
Michael Carpenter, US ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a speech in Vienna in May that many witnesses detailed Russia’s “brutal interrogations” In filtering camps where at least several thousand Ukrainians were raped, and deported in the order of at least tens of thousands.
Mr Blinken’s statement on Wednesday also noted reports indicating that Russian forces were “deliberately” separating Ukrainian children from their parents and kidnapping others from orphanages. Witnesses and survivors, the statement said, describe “regular threats, harassment and torture incidents by Russian security forces.”
In some cases, the statement said, Ukrainians’ passports were confiscated, and Russian passports were issued instead, “in an apparent attempt to change the demographic structure of the regions.” of Ukraine.”
There’s also plenty of evidence, the statement says Russian authorities are “detaining or disappearing thousands of Ukrainian civilians” who haven’t gone through the filtering process, including those affiliated with the Ukrainian Army, the force. territorial defense, media, government and civil society groups.
The statement said that reports also indicated that Russian authorities had transported tens of thousands of people to detention facilities inside Russian-controlled Donetsk, where many were tortured. According to the reports, it said, others were “shortly executed, consistent with evidence of atrocities committed by Russia in Bucha, Mariupol and other locations in Ukraine. ”
Blinken’s statement said the United States was calling for an immediate halt to the deportations and asking Russian authorities to release the detainees and allow them to return home. Independent outside observers, the statement said, should be allowed access to the so-called filter facilities, which serve as a guide station for many deportations, as well as places where Ukrainians have been deported. export.
“President Putin and his government will not be able to engage in these systematic abuses with impunity,” the statement read. “Accountability is imperative.”
