Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been interrogated, forcibly deported to Russia, says US
The US has evidence that “hundreds of thousands” of Ukrainian citizens have been interrogated, detained and forcibly deported to Russia in “a series of horrors” overseen by officials from Russia’s presidency.
The accusation came during a Security Council meeting called by the United States and Albania to discuss Russia’s “filtration operations.”
Russia immediately dismissed the allegation as “fantasy,” labelling it the latest invention in a disinformation campaign against the country.
US. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians.
She said they are sent to Russia, often to isolated regions in its far eastern regions.
This number involves Ukrainians voluntarily fleeing the war in their homeland and those forcibly being moved to Russia passing through a series of “filtration points” where treatment allegedly ranges from interrogations, data collection and strip searches to being yanked aside, tortured, and sent to a detention centre in Russia and never seen again.
“These operations aim to identify individuals Russia deems insufficiently compliant or compatible to its control,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “And there is mounting and credible evidence that those considered threatening to Russian control because of perceived pro-Ukrainian leanings are ‘disappeared’ or further detained.”
Russia’s presidency is not only coordinating filtration operations but is providing lists of Ukrainians to be targeted for filtration, she added.
Thomas-Greenfield said estimates indicate thousands of children have been subject to filtration, “some separated from
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