Ukraine accuses Russia of taking thousands of civilians from Mariupol to its territory

Ukraine accused Russia to forcibly relocate thousands of civilians from Mariupolthe port city devastated by Russian bombing.

The Russian government houses some 5,000 people in a temporary camp in Bezimenne, east of Mariupol, as seen on satellite images.

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The Deputy Prime Minister of UkraineIryna Vereshchuk said that 40,000 had been transferred from Ukraine to the territory controlled by Russia without any coordination with kyiv.

“We were all taken by force,” says a refugee from Mariupol, now in Russia.

Some Ukrainian officials describe Russia’s actions as “deportations” to “filtration camps”which resembles Russia’s war in Chechnya.

In the late 1990s, thousands of Chechens were brutally interrogated in makeshift camps and many disappeared.

It is an internationally recognized human rights abuse for a warring party to deport civilians to its territory.

thousands trapped

While 140,000 civilians managed to escape from the besieged city of Mariupol, another 170,000 remain trapped, according to the local council.

Relentless Russian bombardment for more than three weeks has left the city in ruins, its terrified civilians hiding in cellars, short of water, food and medicine.

Russian bombing has devastated Mariupol. (GETTY IMAGES).

The BBC cannot independently verify figures for civilians evacuated from Mariupol, or the number of deceased victims.

Relatively few Mariupol civilians have fled through the humanitarian corridors established by both sides. Ukraine says Russian troops continued to shell evacuation routes, which were supposed to be safe.

In parts of Mariupol under Russian control, reports suggest that hungry, thirsty and often sick civilians they have no choice but to head to the areas controlled by Moscow and to Russia itself.

Irina, one of the refugees, spoke to the BBC’s Wyre Davies via Zoom from a relative’s home in Russia.

She says Russian soldiers told her and other refugees in a bunker to leave, for their own safety. The building was on fire after being bombed.

They walked 4km to a Russian checkpoint, and from there were taken further east, into territory controlled by pro-Russian rebels in the breakaway Donetsk region.

“Once there, you had to decide if you were going to stay in the region or go to Russia,” he said.

“Some older people I know and met at the rally point didn’t know where they were going or why. They thought they could stay in Rostov [Rusia] for a couple of months… and then maybe come back to Mariupol”.

Satellite images show a camp in the Russian city of Bezimenne where Ukrainians have arrived. (SATELLITE IMAGE ©2022 MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES.)

“Instead, they took them to Samara [al norte de Rostov, en el sur de Rusia]. They said they had no idea what to do there, and accommodation there is only for two weeks,” he says.

By will and by force

The historical ties between Russia and Ukraine they mean that many Ukrainians have relatives in Russia. But it is unclear how many refugees from Mariupol have voluntarily gone to Russia.

The Russian government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported on March 21 that a long column of refugee vehicles had taken more than two hours to reach Bezimenne, a coastal town 90 km east of Mariupol.

About 5,000 refugees are housed there, in tents, a school and a club. The Ministry of Emergencies Russia has sent aid and workers to the scene.

Along the way, Donetsk rebels detained civilians at checkpoints, fingerprinted and photographed them.

“Their details are checked against a database of fugitive criminals. One of the key problems is the shortage of SIM cards and not everyone has a mobile phone,” the Gazeta reported.

Russia denies it is forcibly removing Ukrainians of his country.

The International Committee for Red Cross The ICRC says it “never helps organize or carry out forced evacuations”, and has only assisted in two evacuations: from Sumy, a besieged city in the north, to another territory controlled by Ukraine.

“This applies everywhere we work. We would not support any operation that goes against the will of the people and against our principles,” the ICRC said.

Ukraine has urged the ICRC not to open an office in Rostov, which is reportedly being discussed with the Russian Red Cross.

kyiv says that could be used to legitimize deportations.

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Source: Elcomercio