US Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanded that Russia end its “filtration” system, resulting in the forcible expulsion of thousands of Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territory. Blinken referred to this practice as a “war crime.”

“The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

According to Blinken, Russian authorities have scrutinized, imprisoned, and forcefully expelled between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian nationals from their homes in Russia – typically to secluded locations in Far East Russia.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that the number of Ukrainians carried to Russia could reach up to 2 million people. He said this in a video speech.

 

 

As per the address of Zelensky, the accurate figures are uncertain because “all these deported people are deprived of means of communication, their documents are taken away from them, they are intimidated and taken to remote areas of Russia to make it as difficult as possible for them to return to their homeland.”