Russian filtration camps for Ukrainians

As of June 2022, most filtration camps were attested to be located in towns and villages across the puppet quasi-state Donetsk People's Republic. Filtration camps have been set up in what had previously been public buildings like schools, cultural centres, sports halls,[9] community centres, police stations, and makeshift camp areas.[10]

In a July 2022 statement to the OSCE, a U.S. diplomat stated that the U.S. had identified at least 18 filtration camp sites set up by Russia both in Ukrainian and Russian territory, with preparations of filtration camps having been undertaken even before the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The filtration camps had been set up in Ukrainian territory that had recently come under Russian occupation by Russian officials working alongside proxy groups, the U.S. diplomat said. The U.S. diplomat said the filtration camps were set up in what had been schools, sport centres, and cultural institutions.[17] An article published by the Polish Spokesman for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services found and published the location of six such camps "where there are Russian torture chambers used against Ukrainians."[21]

Fleeing Ukrainians have been transferred into filtration camps unknowingly, being falsely told that they are being taken to Ukrainian-held territory.[9][10] Some are forced to pass "filtration" while fleeing combat or forcibly herded into the process by occupation forces or authorities, while still others agree to undergo the process in order to be able enter Russia or continue travel within occupied areas.[10]

After arriving in filtration camps, detainees are told they are not allowed to leave the town in which the filtration camp is located as they await "filtration".[9] Detention in filtration camps have been reported to last anywhere from an hour[10] to many weeks.[9]

Living conditions in the camps are often squalid. The camps are poorly organised.[9][10] Those detained in the camps described sleeping on the floors or on cardboard,[9] living in poor sanitary conditions,[10] and meal rations that were scant or altogether absent.[9][10]

During filtration, detainees are photographed, fingerprinted, interrogated, and the contents of their phones are examined.[9][22][23][24] They undergo detailed interrogations about personal background, family ties, and political views and allegiances.[11] Detainees are questioned about whether they know anyone serving in the Ukrainian army.[9][22][23][24] Detainees are asked about their political views and any ties to the Azov Regiment.[25][26][27] Men and in some instances women are strip-searched to be examined for Ukrainian nationalist tattoos.[9][22][23][24] During "filtration", men have been subjected to inspections looking for possible signs of bruising from body armour or rifle use. Officials involved in the "filtration" process have said that the collected information is used to populate a database.[10]

"Filtration" usually ends in one of two ways: either the detainee is given a document certifying that they have passed filtration, or they are detained for further interrogation. Even after passing "filtration", some men are interrogated again during their passage from the filtration camp across areas under Russian control.[9] Children are sometimes separated from their parents and separately transferred to Russia during filtration as part of the child abductions in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[28]

According to the U.S. State Department, Ukrainians with affiliations with the Ukrainian armed forces, government, media, or civil society are "filtered" from the rest of the detainees, and subject to transfer to detention facilities where they reportedly face torture, and summary execution.[29]

Detainees perceived as having ties to the Ukrainian armed forces or Ukrainian state, or pro-Ukrainian or anti-Russian views are subject to maltreatment, arbitrary detenion, torture, and forced disappearance.[11] Beatings, torture with electricity, and killings have been reported by people interrogated in the filtration camps.[12] Women and girls are at risk of sexual abuse.[11] One witness said filtration camp staff forced detainees to give false testimony (blame Ukraine for destroying their homes) on camera.[30]

After passing "filtration", some people are released within the DNR, while others are deported onward into Russia.[10] People that have passed through the filtration camps have said that they had been ultimately sent to various cities across Russia after their release from the filtration camps, with many having been sent to the Russian Far East.[17] After arriving in Russia, they are usually first temporarily placed in refugee centres before being instructed or coerced by Russian officials to travel to other destinations within Russia, while some are able to go to stay with relatives or friends in Russia, arrange their own accommodation in Russia, or leave Russia. Russian officials have pressured Ukrainians placed in temporary refugee centres to apply for asylum[10][30] or Russian citizenship, or face indefinite detention in the centres.[30] Some are interrogated again by Russian officials after arriving in Russia. Ukrainians are not officially prohibited from leaving Russia, but in practice face obstacles (sometimes significant ones) in doing so. An ad hoc network of activists has emerged to help Ukrainians leave Russia.[10][30] According to the U.S. State Department, Ukrainian citizens are coerced to sign agreements to stay in Russia prior to their release from filtration camps, thereby hindering their return to Ukraine.[29]

Ukrainian intelligence has said that Ukrainian citizens released from filtration camps are offered employment in economically depressed regions of Russia by Russian employment centres.[31]

Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia's National Defense Management Center, said in May 2022 that 1,185,791 people have been transferred into Russia.[32] According to the U.S. State Department, "between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children" have passed through the "filtration" process and deported, "often to isolated regions in the Far East" in a "pre-meditated [...] apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine".[29]

Russia has enacted measures to facilitate the process of granting temporary asylum and Russian citizenship to Ukrainians. In April 2022, Russia adopted federal legislation which includes provisions streamlining applications for Russian citizenship for Russian-speaking Ukrainians from Donbas. On March 5, 2022, Putin signed a decree to help civilians fleeing hostilities that established a simplified administrative procedures for Ukrainians entering Russia and seeking asylum or citizenship. Ukrainians arriving in Russia from the DNR and LNR are entitled to a one-time cash payment. Asylum seekers and refugees in Russia are entitled a number of rights, including food and temporary accommodation, and resources and support in finding work and housing; in practice, people face significant obstacles in claiming these rights. Ukrainians must hand over their passport to obtain a temporary asylum card without being informed that they are entitled to retrieve their passport and exit Russia, leading some to believe they are not allowed to exit Russia.[10]

Ukrainians that have fled into Georgia have avoided forced deportations into Russian cities that are reportedly common after passing "filtration". Some Ukrainians that were detained in filtration camps have said that informing filtration camp officials that they have concrete plans to go to a specific Russian city enabled them to be released and told to find their own way there, thus enabling them to escape into Georgia and avoid forced transfers.[9]

Some people reported that they needed to slip out of filtration camps in Novoazovsk or post-filtering from Taganrog or Rostov-on-Don to escape through neighboring countries like Georgia, rather than be forcibly sent to distant parts of Russia.[9]

The Russian Embassy in the United States has said the filtration camps are "checkpoints for civilians leaving the zone of active hostilities".[38]

Ukrainian officials have compared the filtration camps to filtration camps in Chechnya.[7]

United States ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said "I do not need to spell out what these so-called 'filtration camps' are reminiscent of. It's chilling and we cannot look away".[8] She cited reports that FSB agents confiscated passports, IDs and mobile phones, as well as reports of Ukrainian families being separated.[8] The US envoy to the OSCE, Michail Carpenter, told the organization's permanent council that according to credible reporting, Ukrainian civilians in the filtration camps were interrogated and those suspected of ties to independent media or the military were beaten or tortured before being transferred to the Donetsk region, "where they are reportedly disappeared or murdered."[39]

Tanya Lokshina, director of Human Rights Watch for Europe and Asia, said: "Under international human rights law, forced displacement or transfer doesn't necessarily mean people were forced into a vehicle at gunpoint, but rather that they found themselves in a situation that left them no choice."[6] She pointed out that the Geneva Convention prohibits "individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory, are prohibited, regardless of their motive".[6]

In an interview to Current Time TV, human rights activist Pavel Lisyansky said that the "courses" are often accompanied by physical violence, moral pressure and humiliation, and compared them to the "re-education" of Uyghurs by the Chinese government, which likely inspired these filtration camps and methods. Lisyansky also said that he knows three or four cases of Ukrainian civilians getting killed and their documents destroyed after they had a conflict with their "curator".[33][34][35]