“The caption indicates that the photo was taken in Mariupol. People wearing similar blue [signalling affiliation with Young Guard – ed.] and red [signalling affiliation with Volunteer company – ed.] clothes can be seen in numerous photos and videos from Mariupol which these two organisations have shared on social media.”
The Young Guard is Putin’s youth wing party. Its members produce social media videos and photos showing their activities like chopping wood, handing out bread to other people, and allegedly assisting in the evacuation. However, Petro Andriushchenko, Adviser to the Mayor of Mariupol, said that these so-called volunteers are not helping people evacuate. Instead, they’re forcing people out of their homes, boarding them in busses, and taking them to filtration camps.
Last month, it was reported by the US intelligence assessment that there are a dozen of these filtration camps in Eastern Ukraine.
“The filtration process includes temporary detention, data collection, interrogation, and in some cases abuse of detainees, and takes place in a variety of temporary processing centers — often in parallel with internally displaced persons and refugee processing,” according to the assessment.
https://twitter.com/WarAgainstPutin/status/1545477386057093120
Russia has yet to release a statement clarifying the purpose of the filtration camps. However, there are three possible scenarios for those who were caught in filtration camps:
“Those who are deemed nonthreatening may be issued documentation and permitted to remain in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, or in some cases forcefully deported to Russia,” the agency reported. “Others deemed less threatening, but still potentially resistant to Russian occupation, face forcible deportation to Russia and are subject to additional screening. Those deemed most threatening during the filtration process, particularly anyone with affiliation to the military or security services, probably are detained in prisons in eastern Ukraine and Russia, though little is known about their fates.”
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky calls for immediate action as more abuses are reported in these detention centers (including executions).
“Young women disappear there,” he said. “I think you all understand what is happening with them there.”
As a response, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on Russia to immediately close these centers saying the process is an “unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons” and that it breaches the “Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime.”
“Eyewitnesses and survivors of ‘filtration’ operations, detentions and forced deportations report frequent threats, harassment and incidents of torture by Russian security forces,” Mr. Blinken said in a statement.
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