{"id":50327,"date":"2022-07-13T08:13:26","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:13:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=50327"},"modified":"2022-07-13T08:23:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T15:23:57","slug":"russias-filtration-operations-forced-disappearances-and-mass-deportations-of-ukrainian-citizens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=50327","title":{"rendered":"Russia\u2019s \u201cFiltration\u201d Operations, Forced Disappearances, and Mass Deportations of Ukrainian Citizens"},"content":{"rendered":"
07\/13\/2022 09:14 AM EDT<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of State<\/p>\n

On the eve of the Ukraine Accountability Conference, the United States calls on Russia to immediately halt its systematic \u201cfiltration\u201d operations and forced deportations in Russian-controlled and held areas of Ukraine.\u00a0\u00a0The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and\u202fis\u202fa war crime.\u202f\u202fRussian authorities must\u202frelease those detained and\u202fallow Ukrainian citizens forcibly removed or coerced into leaving their country the ability to promptly and safely return home. \u202fWe call on Russia to provide outside independent observers access to so-called \u201cfiltration\u201d facilities and to forced deportation relocation areas in Russia.<\/p>\n

Estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have\u202finterrogated,\u202fdetained,\u202fand\u202fforcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russia \u2013 often to isolated regions in the Far East.\u202f Moscow\u2019s actions appear pre-meditated and draw immediate historical comparisons to Russian \u201cfiltration\u201d operations in Chechnya and other areas.\u00a0 President Putin\u2019s \u201cfiltration\u201d operations are separating families,\u202fconfiscating Ukrainian passports, and issuing Russian passports in an apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Reports also indicate Russian authorities are deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages before putting them up for adoption inside Russia. Eyewitnesses and survivors of \u201cfiltration\u201d operations, detentions, and forced deportations report frequent threats, harassment, and incidents of torture by Russian security forces.\u202f During this process, Russian authorities also reportedly capture and store biometric and personal data, subject civilians to invasive searches and interrogations and coerce Ukrainian citizens into signing agreements to stay in Russia, hindering their ability to freely return home.<\/p>\n

Evidence is mounting that Russian authorities are also reportedly detaining or disappearing thousands of Ukrainian civilians who do not pass \u201cfiltration.\u201d Those detained or \u201cfiltered out\u201d include Ukrainians deemed threatening because of their potential affiliation with the Ukrainian army, territorial defense forces, media, government, and civil society groups.\u00a0 Eyewitnesses, survivors, and Ukraine\u2019s General Prosecutor have reported that Russian authorities have transported tens of thousands of people to detention facilities inside Russian-controlled Donetsk, where many are reportedly tortured.\u202f There are reports that some individuals targeted for \u201cfiltration\u201d have been summarily executed, consistent with evidence of Russian atrocities committed in\u202fBucha, Mariupol, and other locations in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

President\u00a0Putin and his government will not be able to engage in these systematic abuses\u00a0with impunity. Accountability is imperative.\u00a0 This is why we are supporting Ukrainian and international authorities\u2019 efforts to collect, document, and preserve evidence of atrocities.\u00a0 Together, we are dedicated to holding perpetrators of war crimes and other atrocities accountable.<\/p>\n

The United States and our partners will not be silent.\u00a0 Ukraine and its citizens deserve justice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

07\/13\/2022 09:14 AM EDT   Antony...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50327"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50328,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50327\/revisions\/50328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}