There are four filtration centers in the temporarily occupied Mariupol and in the vicinity of the city, where the Russians already contain more than 10 thousand people. This, according to "Ukrainian Truth", said the mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boychenko at a briefing.
“There are filtration centers both in the city of Mariupol and outside the city, four of them have been working all this time. And, unfortunately, more than 10,000 local people are in captivity,” Boychenko said. Ukrinform published a video of the briefing.
According to Boychenko, many civil servants and municipal workers are being held captive. There are no doctors in the filtration centers, which is why Mariupol residents do not receive medical care.
He added that almost 2,000 men are now kept in one of the centers. In his opinion, this is due to the upcoming mobilization: “We understand why they are doing this. They announced that sometime in September they would distribute these pieces of paper, which are called Russian passports. And this is a ticket to the front.”
On July 8, the US reported that it had discovered at least 18 Russian filtration camps set up to detain and forcibly deport Ukrainians to Russia. The New York Times wrote about this with reference to the Deputy Head of the US Mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Courtney Ostrian.
Russia began preparing camps on both sides of the Ukrainian-Russian border even before the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, she said. “Russian officials have likely compiled lists to filter and detain Ukrainian civilians who threaten Russian control of Ukraine, including anyone with pro-Ukrainian views — politicians and activists, as well as security personnel,” she said.
Ostrian compared the filtration camps with Stalin's repressions. According to her, the United States will seek to document known cases and prosecute those involved in the creation of the camps: "All those responsible for the forced transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Russia will be identified and held accountable for violating international law."
In early June, an adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol, Petr Andryushchenko, reported on his Telegram channel that a second “filtration prison” had been discovered in Mariupol, which also contained more than 20 volunteers who helped evacuate Ukrainians from the occupied city.
He said that almost all volunteers received certificates from the Red Cross of Ukraine. According to Andryushchenko, it is now becoming clear why the so-called DPR launched a program to discredit the Red Cross: "to avoid accusations of arresting their volunteers."
On the same day, the mayor of Mariupol, Vadim Boychenko, said that in the Mariupol district of the Donetsk region, the Russian military were shooting Ukrainian volunteers and officials for refusing to cooperate with the occupying authorities. According to him, the fake court of the so-called "DPR" sentenced the chairman of one of the Azov settlements to 10 years in prison. At least one civil servant has been executed by firing squad, and a Ukrainian judge who has tried several high-profile cases is being tortured, Boichenko said.
Earlier in May, Andryushchenko released a video from a filtration camp in the village of Bezymennoye, where Russian soldiers are holding men from Mariupol. He signed the videos: "The real ghetto!" According to him, people are kept in terrible conditions: they sleep on the floor in the corridors, and there is no medical assistance. A case of tuberculosis has already been recorded at the school where they were taken, and in the village of Kazatskoye a man died because of a refusal to call an ambulance for him. The detainees are bypassed every day, in the absence of any of them they promise to intensify the torture and resort to the execution of other people. Also, Mariupol residents are not returned their documents, they only issue a filtration certificate, which does not allow them to leave the camp. Those who try to escape are detained and beaten.