US Calls on Russia to Free Deported Ukrainians

The U.S. has called on Russia to stop the systematic filtration and forced deportation of Ukrainians from occupied territories. U.S. Secretary of USA Anthony Blinken said this on July 13. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 200,000 children have been deported to Russia by force. 

Ukrainian officials care for deported people. Last month, President Volodymyr Zelensky called deportations “one of Russia’s most heinous war crimes.” Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky reported that more than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia.

“The Russian authorities interrogated, detained, and deported from 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, to Russia forcibly, often to isolated regions in the Far East,” Blinken said.

The RF puts up Ukrainian children for adoption, and thousands of other people “disappear,” the report says.

“Russian authorities are separating Ukrainian children from their parents deliberately and abducting children from orphanages before putting them up for adoption in Russia,” Blinken added.

According to him, there is a growing amount of evidence that the Russian authorities detain or facilitate the disappearance of thousands of peaceful citizens of Ukraine who have not passed “filtration”.

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Blinken called on Russia to release detainees, allow those who were forcibly removed to return home safely, and allow independent observers into so-called “filtration” camps and places of forced deportation.

“Eyewitnesses and those who survived filtering operations, detention, and forced deportation report frequent threats, harassment, and cases of torture by Russian security forces,” the State Department said in a statement.

“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,” Blinken added.

The Ukrainian authorities blame the RF for deporting hundreds of thousands of people from the occupied territories and forcing them to pass through so-called “filtration camps.”

European officials have described “filtration” camps as being set up in schools, sports centers, and cultural institutions in parts of Ukraine recently occupied by Russian troops.

A huge number of Ukrainians have been transported from such “camps” to destinations across Russia — often to regions near China or Japan.

The Russian Federation, in turn, denies that it is persecuting civilians in Ukraine. The Kremlin disseminates disinformation that Russia offers humanitarian aid to those who want to leave Ukraine.

The RF has acknowledged that 1.5 million Ukrainians are in Russia, but said they were evacuated for their own safety.