Russia’s “Filtration” Operations, Forced Disappearances, and Mass Deportations of Ukrainian Citizens 

Official State Department Photo

Forced deportations of Ukrainians by Russia have largely flown under the press coverage of the invasion.  In July, Secretary of State Antony Blinken issued a press statement in which 

” the United States call[ed] on Russia to immediately halt its systematic `filtration’ operations and forced deportations in Russian-controlled and held areas of Ukraine.  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.  Russian authorities must release those detained and allow Ukrainian citizens forcibly removed or coerced into leaving their country the ability to promptly and safely return home.  We call on Russia to provide outside independent observers access to so-called `filtration’ facilities and to forced deportation relocation areas in Russia.”

Voice of America reported on October 3 that

“A recent report by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab identified 21 filtration-related facilities in the Donetsk Oblast alone. The report identified four types of facilities: those used for registration, holding, interrogation, and long-term detention. There are also checkpoints along main thoroughfares where Ukrainian civilians fleeing from Russia-controlled areas are subjected to filtration; and cases where civilians are simply rounded up and forcibly taken to filtration facilities.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield noted, `Estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained, forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens from their homes to Russia – often to isolated regions in the Far East.’” (bold added).

KJ