Ukrainian refugee shares details after being taken to Russian ‘filtration camp’

A refugee fleeing the decimated city of Mariupol has exposed a number of questionable activities taking place at a Russian ‘filtration camp’.

A Ukrainian refugee has revealed disturbing details after being interned in a Russian “filtration camp”.

The UN yesterday revealed as many as four million Ukrainians have fled the country since late February, with a further 12 million estimated to be trapped inside the warzone.

More than 350,000 of those people have left Ukraine for Russia.

The young woman said her family were among several thousand residents forced to leave the decimated port city of Mariupol.

Ukrainian officials believe thousands of refugees have been “forcibly relocated” to Russia through separatist-controlled areas in the eastern regions of Ukraine.

The woman, who has remained anonymous, said she was taken to what the Russian military described as “filtration camps”, where military men check various forms of identification of refugees, or as they describe them, “temporarily displaced people”.

The woman said refugees were photographed from all angles, had their fingerprints collected and were then asked to hand over their mobile phones and passcodes.

Officers were reportedly then seen entering their data into a computer before an interrogation took place.

“They just walked into our shelter and said that women and children must leave it,” the woman said via the Washington Post.

“We asked if it was possible to stay at all, and they said no, that this is the order. We did not know where they were taking us.

“At all stages of the journey, we were treated like captives or some criminals. I felt like a sack of potatoes tossed around. You have no will. How can you resist this? Even if you have a chance to escape, everything around is destroyed, and there is nowhere to hide.”

As many as 350,000 Ukrainians have reportedly fled into Russia. Mairupol’s Mayor claims Russian forces have been removing residents from the decimated city and taking them across the border.

The UN claims over 4 million refugees have fled Ukraine since the invasion on February 24.

The young refugee said Ukrainians at the camp were largely kept in the dark about their next move.

“Then they add you to three different databases and take you further, but they don’t tell you where exactly they are leading you,” she continued.

“At every stage of the way, they tell you that you have to be grateful that you are given a sandwich or evacuated somewhere else, that you have been liberated. Liberated from what?”

She said they were taken to the city of Taganrog, perched on the Sea of Azov, where the group of refugees were informed they would be taken to the town of Vladimir around 1,000km to the east.

It was at this point the woman was able to leave the convoy, after successfully convincing Russian troops she had a friend nearby willing to house her. Her current whereabouts remains unknown.

Hundreds of thousands of people were said to have been held ‘hostage’ in Mariupol as Russian shelling ripped through the city. Supplies have reportedly dwindled in the port city, meaning some residents have no option but to flee.

Earlier in March, Russia was criticised for setting up humanitarian corridors that lead directly across their border, sparking fears refugees would be subject to harsh treatment once inside the invading nation.

A volunteer working for the Helping to Leave Fund said Russian soldiers were urging civilians in Mariupol to leave with them as supplies dwindle in the city. Ukrainian officials estimated around 300,000 civilians were held “hostage” in the city as shells ripped apart both commercial and residential buildings in the early stages of the invasion.

“We are receiving reports that Russian soldiers tell people who come out of the shelters that there is ‘absolutely no evacuation from Mariupol at all, this is your last chance, and so on’,” the volunteer said.

“People agree because they have nothing, no electricity, no food, no heat. So people suffering from hunger have to evacuate just somewhere.”

Refugees are spotted entering Moldova. No images of Russian camps have been made available.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko accused Russia of forcibly migrating fleeing Ukrainians to Russia last week, comparing the situation to WWII.

“What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people,” he said via Telegram.

“It is difficult to imagine that in the 21st century, people will be forcibly deported to another country. Not only are Russian troops destroying our peaceful Mariupol, they have gone even further and started deporting Mariupol residents.”

Russia has denied forcibly relocating residents, with the Kremlin this week declaring “all such reports are lies”.