Comment Russia has expelled 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens from Russian-held parts of Ukraine in a systemic “filtration” operation, Foreign Minister Anthony Blinken said in a statement on Wednesday, in a strong condemnation of Moscow and confirming allegations that Ukrainian officials have imposed. for weeks. Many of those “forcibly deported,” including 260,000 children, some separated from their families, have wound up in isolated areas in Russia’s Far East, Blinken said. “Reports indicate” that Russian forces have taken thousands of children from orphanages in Ukraine and put them up for adoption in Russia, according to the statement. Why Russia can take children from Ukraine Washington Post reporting in March indicated that Ukrainian civilians had already been deported. Some were taken to Taganrog, a Russian port on the Sea of Azov. From there, they would be sent by train to cities and towns across Russia. In March, satellite images and video verified by The Post showed Russian-backed forces beginning to build a camp in Bezymenne, in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine. In late June, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that 1.2 million Ukrainians had been forcibly deported to Russia, including 240,000 children. Two thousand of the children were orphans. The head of Russia’s National Defense Control Center, Mikhail Mizinchev, said 2,359,000 Ukrainian “refugees” have moved to Russia, including 371,925 children. Last week, Courtney Austrian, deputy head of the US mission to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said in a speech that 18 “filtration camps” had been identified along both sides of the Ukraine-Russia border. With the help of proxy groups, Russian officials had set up camps in schools, sports centers and cultural institutions in the Russian-occupied territories. Ukraine says Russia forcibly relocated thousands from Mariupol. Here is a dramatic account. Blinken’s statement cited accounts of Russian authorities moving tens of thousands of people to detention facilities in Donetsk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine. Moscow “allegedly” stored biometric and personal data of civilians and subjected them to intrusive searches, according to the statement, which noted that some Ukrainians were forced to sign agreements to stay in Russia. “The illegal transfer and deportation of protected persons is a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians and is a war crime,” Blinken said, drawing parallels with previous Russian infiltration operations in Chechnya and elsewhere. Robert Goldman, an expert on war crimes and human rights at American University, said forced deportations on the scale described by Blinken could amount to genocidal intent. “It just adds to the sad litany of systematic violations of the most basic prohibitions we have in law on things we didn’t think we’d see again since World War II, but they’re happening,” he said. Residents of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia have warned that history is repeating itself. From 1941 to 1952, a total of half a million people from the Baltic states were deported to Russia. The aim of the deportations was mainly political, with the aim of clearing the area of anti-Soviet forces. Among the first group of people were the men of the Baltic elite, including teachers, writers, lawyers and other professionals, along with their families. Later, during “Operation Priboi”, women and children were deported and sent to farms to work. Many died along the way. Robyn Dixon in Riga, Latvia contributed to this report.
