According to the Ukrainians, filter camps have even been created in the occupied areas, a preliminary camp where it is decided who is deported, in a strategy that evokes the mass deportations of the USSR
Karina Petrovka can no longer talk to her grandmother unless she calls her. “She is 77 years old. When the Russians took over her neighborhood in Mariupol, they forced her and other residents to board buses to an unknown destination. I don’t know how many people they took away,” explains this disconsolate social worker originally from Mariupol, settled in Kharkov. «On February 28 I lost contact with her, until on March 24 she called me. She told me that she had been relocated to the Russian city of Yaroslavl, with the others. She told me that they were feeding her, that she was fine and not to worry about her. Also that she does not want to return to Mariupol because there is nowhere to return, now that everything is destroyed », she sighs with her eyes full of tears. “The worst thing is that I don’t know if the Russians forced him to tell me all that.”
Various residents of Mariupol and other towns in Donbas occupied by Russian troops – in the case of the former, it is still in dispute – confirmed to this newspaper the deportation of residents. Some thirty kidnappings of elected officials have been documented -and dozens more of journalists and activists- who intend to be replaced by politicians who work for Moscow, and there are reports of disappearances of civilians in all the areas occupied by Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov dismisses the accusations as “lies” but Moscow has reported that 420,000 people have “voluntarily” left Ukraine for Russia “fleeing the dangerous regions of Ukraine and the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk ». For her part, the Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denysova assures that “the Russian Army has forcibly deported 700,000 Ukrainians to Russia, including 130,000 children.” She has also stated that about 20,000 people are brought to Russia every day, Ukrainians are in 35 regions of the Russian Federation.
Forced population movements, as well as the designation of pro-Russian municipal authorities and the obligation for local officials to sign new contracts with Russia – some employees refuse to sign such contracts – characterize the occupation of Donbas and the expansion of territory that it undertakes Russia in what seems like a careful strategy of demographic change, going from a mixed society to another that is necessarily pro-Russian. The move includes more elements, such as the substitution of the Ukrainian telephony for the Russian one, the substitution through the kidnapping of elected officials by Kremlin puppets and the offer of humanitarian aid to those who willingly accept the new authorities. According to the Ukrainians, filter camps have even been created in the occupied areas, a preliminary camp where it is decided who is deported, in a strategy that evokes the massive deportations of the USSR, which removed three million people from their regions of origin between 1936 and 1952. Many of them ended up in Siberia or in the Central Asian republics.
Olga speaks on the phone from the town of Bakhmut, in Donbas. “Today there have been two explosions, although in general the situation is calm and it has not yet fallen into Russian hands, unlike Kramatorsk and Slaviansky (annexed to the Republic of Donetsk in 2014). However, we are very scared because there are many troop movements and we are afraid that we will be next.” The woman explains that “Donbas is totally isolated from the rest of the country because the Ukrainian telephone networks have been replaced by the Russian system, which is one-way and has tripled prices.” This explains why only Karina’s grandmother can call her granddaughter, without her having the option to return the call. Olga also confirms the forced disappearances. “The Russians are arresting civilians, as the mayor has confirmed, for questioning. Sometimes they strip them naked, they beat them, they treat people badly. A few days ago they arrived and demanded that the men either leave with them in 15 minutes or they would shoot them. The mayor urged them to gather in the square and in the end the people demanded that the Russians beat them out. And they succeeded », she remembers proudly. Many in Ukraine remember the deed, as have also been recorded in the memory of all peaceful demonstrations suppressed by weapons, as happened in early April in Energodar. There, Mayor Dimitro Orlov called on residents to take to the streets to demand the release of his deputy mayor, Ivan Samoidiuk. The protest was dispersed with gunshots and stun grenades.
The nightmare began in 2014
For residents of Donbas, the nightmare began in 2014. “Since then, men have stayed at home to avoid being forcibly recruited by the Donetsk Army, according to my parents,” explains 28-year-old Daria, who left her Donetsk hometown in 2014 after an attack on his university. “Russian militiamen began to occupy cities very quickly. First, the civil administration was taken over by pro-Russians. They said that they wanted a better life for all, that Ukraine’s independence would bring us privileges, and that Russia would allow us to vote in a referendum. In May 2014, the majority voted in favor. It was the first step to take control, and there was no choice: a police friend left, but he was told that he only had two options, either change sides or lose his life ».
The young woman now resides in Kharkov, again under bombs and without a university certificate. «The one they gave me when I finished my studies is only recognized in Donbas, neither in Ukraine nor in Russia. It’s like having nothing », she explains. The last time her mother came to visit her, last September, she took two days to arrive because of Russian controls. “Before, there were only six hours of road.”
Daria explains that her friends no longer see things the way they used to. “You wouldn’t either. If you watch Donbas television for two weeks in a row, it would change your view of the conflict. My grandmother is pro-Russian and my mother is anti-Russian. They live in the same district, but they don’t even speak to each other. Even though my grandmother hears an explosion in my mother’s area, she doesn’t even call her to ask if she is okay». The propaganda poison sows sympathy for the Kremlin and the drama, for many Ukrainians who have families in Russia, is amplified by the misunderstanding of their relatives. “She is not believed to live in a shelter. My own cousin tells me ‘come on, if you’ve been released, you should be thankful. What happens is that you are communists,’” laments Helena, a 32-year-old civil servant in the dank basement of Kharkov, 40 kilometers from the border with Russia. “They are so blinded by television that they don’t believe the truth even if we tell it to them live,” she adds.
Zaporiyia, next objective
The city of Zaporizhia, capital of the region of the same name, knows the next target if the Russians manage to break Donbas. It has received 55,000 people fleeing their towns, most of them from Donbas, as they are occupied by the Moscow Army – an estimated 80% of the regional territory – given that the town is the natural exit to Zelensky’s Ukraine. but they don’t stay long. “We receive 2,000 people a day, but only 20% stay here,” explains Irina, a peacemaker and reception manager at the Kozac Palace Expocenter. “80% go to other areas of Ukraine or Europe because they fear that Zaporizhia will also be occupied, and they do not want to have to flee again after rebuilding their lives,” details Olena Zhuk, head of the Zaporizhia Regional Council.
A family arrives with a car loaded with belongings, a grandmother and a young baby from Termiuk, in the Donetsk region. “The city has been filled with Russians and they behave in a crazy way,” explains the woman between fuss. “They steal private cars and enter houses looking for food and even asking to use the shower. They say they are looking for young girls to rape them », relates the woman, who wants to set course with her family to Odessa. The Ukrainian authorities claim to have documented cases of rape of women, youth and children of both sexes.
The exit from Mariupol to territory under Ukrainian control passes through Berdyansk, also occupied by the Russians. “You can’t live there. There’s no internet, we can’t use Ukrainian credit cards, and Russian military vehicles loaded with weapons and ammunition pass by all the time. Every day we saw tanks », explains Vitali, a resident of Mariupol who escaped with his family and only spent two days in Berdyansk before deciding to continue on his way to western Ukraine. Tatiana, 45, lived in Berdyansk but is a native of Gorlovka in Donetsk. Her life is one continuous flight. “I escaped in 2014, when the war caught up with us, six months pregnant. We settled in Berdyansk and now we are fleeing again because the war is chasing us”, she explains, looking nervously at the phone in the parking lot where they have left her with her mother, sitting on a bag of belongings and surrounded by a thousand packages that contain a lifetime, and their children, Irina and 14 years old and Vlada of six. “My daughter and I survived an attack a few days ago when we were passing a demonstration by Ukrainians against Russia. The Russian soldiers threw two grenades at us and we survived by a few meters. My son became sick with fear, he vomited every time he heard the anti-aircraft sirens, and we decided to leave the city».
Tatiana hardly concentrates her gaze or the conversation, which turns from one drama to another. «My children are children of the war, they have no documents because the certificates to register them are in the zone occupied by the Russians. They cannot access normal documentation or any type of government aid, nor can I receive my pension. The Russians wanted to give us humanitarian aid, but my daughter said that she would not eat or drink anything that came from the murderers », she explains, upset. Next to her, the slender Irina -regional champion of rhythmic gymnastics- nods with determination. “It is not about 37 days of war, this war has lasted eight years. We are tired of violence and tired of being humiliated without giving us papers for being from Donbas, “Tatiana adds.